Class 
Book 




111 



Gopyii^htN". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



/: 



t > 



EARLY HISTORY OF 
NORTH DAKOTA 



COLONEL CLEMENT A. LOUNSBERRY 

Founder ol the HiBmarck Tribune 



PART I 




The State Flower 

(The Wild Rose) 



Illustrated by EDWIN WILLARD DEMING 
Photographs by D. F. BARKY 



"THE BUFFALO REPUBLIC" 



DDLDTH 

F. U. Lounsberry & Go. 

1913 






Copyright 1913 by 
CLEMENT A. LOUNSBERRY 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Published 1913 



)3I.A332495 



3 



To THE North Dakota Pioneers 

and their successors, the fathers, mothers 
and children of the North Dakota of today, 
this work is affectionately dedicated, by 

The Author. 
Bismarck, Jan. 1913. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



P«ge 
Chapter I — In the Beginning 1 

A Trail of Blood. 

Fwe 

Chapter II — Occupied for Indian Trade 5 

The Hudson's Bay Company. — Prince Rupert's Land. — The North- 
West and X. Y. Companies. — Alexander Henry's Red River Brigade. — 
The Embarkation. — The Indian Hunting Grounds, abounding in Bears, 
Beavers and Buffalo. — Terrorized by the Sioux. — The Park River Post. — 
The Vicious Element of Liquor. — Sacrifice and Thanksgiving. — Story of 
the British Flag. — An Attempt at Bribery. — Hunters and the Spoils. — 
Contracts with the Lords of the Forest. — Early Trading Posts. — -Pem- 
bina Post Established. 

Page 
Chapter III-— The Buffalo Republic 19 

Riches of the Indians. — The Vast Herds of Buffalo. — A Buffalo Hunt 
on the Sheyenne. — Running the Buffalo. — Making Pemmican. — The 
Missouri River Blockade by Buffalo. — The Last Great Hunt. 

Page 

Chapter IV — Founding of Pembina 27 

The Post Named. — Origin of the Name. — The First Farming. — 
Poultry Raising and Manufactures. — The First Child. — Pierre Bonga. — 
The First White Child. — Managers, Employees and Trading Statistics. — 
Buffalo. — The Hunter. — Effects of the Liquor Trade at Pembina. — The 
Stain on the Record. — Northwest and X. Y. Consolidation. — First Family 
Names. — Henry Suffers From the Sioux. — Trial of the New Policy. — 
Chief Tabishaw. — Change in Managers. — Outlying Posts Withdrawn. — 
Anarchy and Hostility. — A Night Attack. — Posts on the Red River. — 
Early Traffic on the Red River. 

Page 
Chapter V — 'The Louisiana Purchase 40 

Events Leading Up to the Purchase. — Discovery and Acquisition of 
Lewis and Clark. — ^^The June Rise in the Missouri River. — The Arikara 
Villages. — Great Herds of Buffalo, Elk and Other Game. — Mandan 
Villages. — Fort Mandan. — The Winter of 1804-'05 in North Dakota. — 
The Beautiful Northern Lights. — Visiting Traders. — Sacajawea, the Bird- 
Woman. — The Missouri Fur Company, — The Return of the Mandan Chief. 



Page 

Chapter VI — "When Wild in Woods the Noble Savage Ran" 60 

The Expedition of Lieutenant Z. M. Pike. — Treaty With the Sioux. — 
On the Upper Mississippi. — The Chippewas Smoke the Pipe of Wabasha. — 
Substituting the American for British Flags and Medals. — Game. — The 
Winter Cantonement. — Hospitality of the Traders. —Alexander Henry's 
Visit to the Mandan Villages. — Ideal Indian Homes. — Social Life Among 
the Indians. — Story of an Indian Battle. — Proposed Treaty That Failed. — 
Manuel Lisa, the Trader. 

Page 
Chapter VII— Graft in the Indian Trade 72 

Eternal Vigilance the Price of Liberty. — The Country Overrun by 
Indian Traders. — The United States As a Factor. — Organization of the 
American Fur Company. — The Lords of the Lake and Forest. — Fort 
William. — The Selkirk Purchase and Colony. — The Seven Oaks 
Massacre. — 'Selkirk Visits the Red River Colony. — Churches and Schools 
Established. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page ^ 

Portrait of the Author Frontispiece •■' 

Running the Buffalo 19 ^ 

The Buffalo in Bronze 24 t^ 

Noted Sioux — Chief Gaul, Rain-in-the-face, Sitting Bull, Bull Head.. 32/^ 
Noted Sioux — Sioux Warrior, Crow King, John Grass, Running , 

Antelope 36 

Statute of Sacajawea at Bismarck oQ y^ 

Virginia Grant, Grand-daughter of Sacajawea 56 / 

Sioux Women Dancing 56 



LIST OF MAPS 



Map of Early Explorations 4 '^■ 

Louisiana as Proclaimed by LaSalle 1682-1762 40'' 

Louisiana 1762-1800 44 

Louisiana Purchase 48 ' 

The Louisiana Purchase and Later Acquisitions 1819-1853 72 / 



PREFACE 



"I hear the tread of pioneers, 

Of nations yet to be, 
The first low wash of waves where soon 

Shall roll a human sea." 

—JOHN G. WHITTIBR. 

More intensely interesting than a fairy tale is the story of the 
development of the great Northwest. It is a story of adventure and 
of daring in the lives of individuals not unmixed with romance, for 
there were brave, loving hearts, and gentle clinging spirits among 
those hardy pioneers, and many incidents and choice bits of legend 
have been handed down, which I hope may serve to make these 
pages interesting. 

It is a story with traces of blood and tears, illustrating "man's 
inhumanity to man," for there were some among the early traders 
who had little regard for the expenditure of these precious treasures, 
in their pursuit of "Gold! gold! gold! gold!" that is "heavy to get 
and light to hold," as suggested by Hood — the 

"Price of many a crime untold 

How^ widely its agencies vary. 
To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless. 

As even its minted coins express. 
Now stamp'd w^ith the image of good Queen Bess, 

And now of a Bloody Mary." 

It is a story of man's love for men, in the work of the early 
missionaries, who, in obedience to the command of the Master, went 
forth into the wilderness to lift up and benefit the "untutored" 
savage, who only "sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind," 
and to bring refuge to His white children, who had blazed the way, 
and who were languishing in despair. It is a story of heroic deeds, 
of patriotic devotion to duty, of suffering and bloodshed and of 
development. 

Whether I am the one to write the story, let others judge. 

"Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us; 

Let us journey to a lonely land I know. 
There's a whisper on the night wind, there's a star agleam to guide us. 
And the Wild is calling, calling — let us go." 

— ROBERT W. SERVICE, 

•'The Call of the Wild." 

My family in all of its branches were among the early settlers 
of New York and New England, frontiersmen and participants in all 



of the early Indian wars. My mother's people suffered in the 
Wyoming massacre. Among the slain in that bloody affair were seven 
from the family of Johnathan Weeks, her paternal ancestor, who 
with fourteen fatherless grand-children returned to Orange County, 
New York, from whence he came, abandoning his well developed 
farm near Wilkesbarre, as demanded by the Indians. 

I knew many of the people directly connected with the Minne- 
sota massacre of 1862, and the incidents leading up to it, and the 
campaign following — settlers in the region affected, prisoners of the 
Sioux, traders, soldiers, missionaries, men in public life, and many 
of the Indians. One of the stockades built by the settlers for de- 
fense, was situated on the first real property I ever owned, and in a 
log house within this stockade, my first child, Hattie, wife of Charles 
E. V. Draper of Mandan, North Dakota, was born. 

In July, 1873, I established the Bismarck Tribune, the first news- 
paper published in North Dakota. There were then but five villages 
in North Dakota — Pembina, Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown and 
Bismarck; no railroad, excepting the Northern Pacific under con- 
struction; no farms, no agriculture, except the cultivation of small 
patches by Indians and half-bloods, or in connection with the military 
posts or Indian agencies; no banks, no public schools, no churches. 
It was my fate to be one of four (John W. Fisher, Henry F. Douglas, 
I. C. Adams and myself) to organize the Presbyterian Church Society 
at Bismarck, the first church organization in North Dakota, in June, 
1873, and in the autumn of Ihat year I was instrumental in organizing 
the Burleigh County Pioneers, developed through my direction into 
the North Dakota State Historical Society, of which I was the first 
president. 

I was at Bismarck when a party of Northern Pacific surveyors 
started west to survey the line of the road from that point to the 
Yellowstone River, in the spring of 1873, and saw the smoke of battle 
and heard the crack of rifies, as the engineers were forced to fight, 
even before they got as far west as the site of Mandan. 

I saw General George A. Custer as he marched to his last battle — 
the massacre of Custer and 261 men of the Seventh U. S. Cavalry on 
the Little Big Horn, by the Sioux. Accompanying him was Mark 
Kellogg, bearing my commission from the New York Herald, who 
rode the horse that was provided for me — for I had purposed going 
in his stead — and who wore the belt I had worn in the Civil War, 
which was stained with my blood. 

I saw the wounded brought down the Yellowstone and the 
Missouri, by Grant Marsh, on that historic boat, the "Far West," and 
the weeping widows whose husbands returned not. 

The trail of blood, beginning at the Atlantic, taking a new start 
at the Gulf, extending to the Pacific, and, returning, starting afresh 
on the banks of the Missouri, came to a sudden check on the banks 
of the Little Big Horn, but it was not ended, the blood already spilled 
was not enough. The Seventh U. S. Cavalry, Custer's Regiment, was 
again baptized in blood at Wounded Knee, and the end was not 
reached until the tragic death of Sitting Bull in 1891. 



We have the Indians with us yet — in many instances happy and 
prosperous farmers, their children attending the schools and univer- 
sities, the male adults having taken lands in severalty under the 
Federal Allotment Act, being recognized citizens of the United States, 
and entitled to the elective franchise in the State of North Dakota. 

If I dwell upon Indian affairs, it is because I have been interested 
in the Indians from childhood. After the battle of Spottslyvania I 
lay in the field hospital beside an Indian soldier, wounded even worse 
than I. Not a groan escaped his lips. I admired the pluck and cour- 
age, and the splendid service of the Indian soldiers from the States 
of Michigan and Wisconsin in the Civil War. I have seen them in 
battle. I have known their excellent service as Indian police, I have 
seen them in their happy homes, when roaming free on the prairie, 
and I know their good points. Although I shall picture the horrors 
of Indian wars in a lurid light, I have no sympathy with the idea 
that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and I am glad to know 
that they are no longer a "vanishing race," but their numbers are 
now increasing, and to feel that they have a splendid destiny before 
them. 

I have seen the growth of North Dakota from the beginning, and 
as I have performed my part in its development, I feel it a duty, as 
well as a privilege, to contribute these pages to its history. 

CLEMENT AUGUSTUS LOUNSBERRY, 
Bismarck, N. D., January, 1913. 



EARLY HISTORY OF 
NORTH DAKOTA 



CHAPTER I. 



IN THE BEGINNING. 

A Trail of Blood. 

"Swiftly walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night." 

—SHELLEY. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the 
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 

HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Long before the earth took form, the universe existed. Compared 
with the whole, the earth's proportion is that of a thought snatched 
from a busy life, a leaf from the forest, a grain of sand from the sea- 
shore, a chip from the workshop of Eternal Energy. 

Perhaps it existed in impalpable dust, or fragments left when 
other worlds or celestial bodies were created, hurled together by 
Almighty Force, forming a burning mass, still burning in the interior, 
changing but not destroying the material of which it was made. 
Gases from the flames still form, and finding vent at some weak spot, 
the explosion and the earthquake follow, and portions shake and 
tremble, cities are destroyed or buried, and the face of the earth 
is changed. 

Perhaps a crust formed upon the surface of the burning mass 
when this old earth was young, which, shrinking as it cooled, gave 
the mountain ranges and the depressions which make the beds of the 
seas and oceans, and out of the volcanoes, belching forth their clouds 
of smoke and gases, came the "darkness" which "was upon the face 
of the deep," and when the darkness disappeared, and life and growth 
became possible, "the morning stars sang together," for a new world 
was born. 

And that world took its course among the planets, the portion 
receiving the direct rays of the sun remaining tropical, while immense 
bodies of ice formed at the poles. "The testimony of the rocks" 
indicates that when the ice was broken loose, and plowed over the 
surface of the earth, it was miles in depth. It broke down, and 
ground to gravel and dust, mountain ranges, leaving here and there 



2 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

the boulders, forming new valleys and new plains, burying the 
Immense mass of vegetation of that earlier period, giving to the world 
its fields of coal. 

Perhaps, under this enormous accumulation of ice, the earth was 
changed in its axis, possibly by some convulsion of nature. The fact 
that a large portion of North Dakota was, time and time again 
beneath the waters, is apparent to any observer, and in all of the 
eastern part of the state, the work of the ice is as visible as the 
stilches of a seamstress upon a completed garment. 

Neither life nor light was possible in the earth's earlier stages 
and after the creation of all other forms of life, man appeared and 
into his organization there was carried every element in nature 
whether on the earth, in the waters which surrounded the earth or 
m the atmosphere-whether in the chattering ape or creeping thing 
m beast or bird, in fish or fowl, in life-supporting or life-destroying 
prmciple, and to all these life was added, breathed into man created 
indeed from the dust of the earth by Divine Energy. And what is 
life? We may follow matter and find it in its changing form but 
when life passes from its earthly tenement, who can say whither it 
goeth? 

Man ate of the tree of knowledge. That was God-given, and its 
use brings its reward and its punishment, but death is essential to 
development, and is as natural as birth. The seasons come and the 
seasons go; winter has its work no less than summer; the flowers 
bloom and fade, and so man is born, matures, and falls into decay 
and, like the dead worlds which have performed their missions, passes 
into dust to be bom again into some new form of life. 

"The stars shine over the earth 

The stars shine over the sea; 
The stars look up to the mighty God 

The stars look down on me. ' 

The stars have .lived a million years 

A million years and a day; 
But God and I shall love and live 

When the stars have passed away." 

—REV. JABEZ THOMAS SUNDERLAND. 

When man appeared upon the face of the earth the strenuous life 
began. Doubtless from the beginning he "earned his bread by the 
sweat of his brow" and the quiet life of Abel invited the first flow of 
human blood, which has formed a continuous trail that marks the 
course of human development. Without bloodshed there has been 
no advancement, without bloodshed no redemption; no great reforms 
have ever gained a masterly headway without bloodshed; no nation 
has ever been established without its baptism of blood. 

Persecution in the old world led to the peopling of the new, and 
every step in the development of the new world is marked by human 
blood. There was war between the French and the English colonists, 
war between the Dutch and their neighbors, and cruelty in most re^ 
volting form by those who sailed under the flag of Spain and gained 
& permanent foothold in the country west of the Mississippi River. 
And from the beginning the whites were at war with the reds, driving 
them from one section, then another, destroying their homes, taking 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 3 

from them their wealth of game, and planting within their breasts 
hatred almost undying. Who does not remember the pathetic words 
of Tah-gah-jute called "Logan?" He was the son of a white man 
reared among the Indians, and was known as a Mingo chief — a com- 
mon term for those Iroquois living beyond the proper boundaries of 
the tribe. He was named for James Logan, colonial secretary of 
Pennsylvania, his father's friend. All the members of his family 
were killed in the spring of 1774, while crossing a river in a canoe, 
and after the defeat of the Indians in the bloody war which followed, 
instead of suing for peace with the rest, he sent this message to be 
delivered to John Murray Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia. 

Logan to Dunmore. 

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logap's 
cabin hungry, and he gave him no meat; if ever he came cold and 
naked, and he clothed him not. During the last long and bloody 
war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such 
was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they 
passed by, and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I 
had even thought to have lived with you, had it not been for th^ 
injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, who last spring, in cold blood, 
unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing 
my women and children, and he an officer in the white man's govern- 
ment! There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living 
creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my country I re- 
joice at the gleams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine 
is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his 
heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one." 

The traditions of many families run back to the King Philip's 
v/ar of 1676, in which six hundred settlers lost their lives, and twelve 
hundred homes were burned, some of the women and children escap- 
ing by being placed in an out-of-door brick oven, before which wood 
v/as piled when the men were called out for the common defense. 
When the men returned they found the family safe, but the buildings 
had been destroyed by fire. In Abbott's "History of King Philip," 
the author graphically tells the story, and concludes with these words: 
"But the amount of misery created can never be told or imagined. 
The midnight assault, the awful conflagration, the slaughter of women 
and children, the horrors of captivity in the wilderness, the impoverish- 
ment and mourning of widows and orphans, the diabolical torture, 
piercing the wilderness with shrill shrieks of mortal agony, the 
terror, universal and uninterrupted by day or night — all, all combined 
in composing a scene in the awful tragedy of human life, which the 
mind of the Deity alone can comprehend." 

Similar scenes were enacted in the Wyoming Valley, Luzerne 
County, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1778, when more than three hundred 
settlers were slain. 

Extending the Frontier. 

Before the Revolutionary War, steps were taken to extend the 
settlement to the west, partly from the impulse to expand, to grow, 



4 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

and partly from a desire to extend the frontier as a measure of pro- 
tection. This ambition was the leading, moving thought among the 
great minds of Virginia, and it was sons of Virginia who blazed the 
way into the trackless wilderness, and took possession of Kentucky, 
"the dark and bloody ground," where the battles were fought and the 
minds cultured which made apparent the advisability of the purchase 
of Louisiana, and contributed so much to its development. 

As Washington, then a young surveyor and lowly citizen, extended 
the lines of survey, he was watched by the red men, who dogged his 
footsteps and scalped his unfortunate assistants who happened to fall 
into their hands, and often it became necessary to drop the tripod 
and compass, and take up the rifle and the knife. That which occurred 
in his case was true in the life of almost all of the frontier surveyors, 
and the frontier farmer carried the rifle, as well as the hoe, into the 
field where the work was done. 

When the little band of Virginians passed down the Ohio River 
on their way to the unknown land, muffled oars guided the Indian 
canoe behind them, and stealthily treading feet followed their foot- 
prints on the land. When they sent their representatives back to Vir- 
ginia, it was the eloquence, the force and the patriotism of Patrick 
Henry— and the loving sympathy of his wife, Dorothea, a gift of God, 
indeed— which gave to the settlers five hundred pounds of powder, to 
Kentucky a name as a county in Virginia, and the support necessary 
to the life of that colony. 

Startling and fruitful of results were the incidents in the years 
of warfare which followed. We find in them the chain of forts, the 
campaign of "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the Battle of Tippecanoe' and 
the War with Mexico. 

The horrors of Indian war were again visited on the frontier 
settlers in the Minnesota massacre of 1862, which brought the trail 
of blood home to Dakota dooT-s, the story of which will be told with 
considerable detail in this volume, for it is important that the youth 
of this fair land should know something of what it has cost to establish 
liberty, to extend the settlements, and to develop the resources of this 
country, until now there is no frontier. 

^Tn^i'^^ prairie's passed or passing- with the passing- of the years 
?hev hTve'ririe^tf worth knowing, and there arl no pionltrl! 
iney have r ddled it with railroads throbbing- on, and on and on- 
In^rv^'/LH^f^;^ '* °^ dangers till the zest Sf it is gone. ' 

And Ive saddled up my pony— for I'm dull and lonlsome here— 

?o let^loWn"p'n^''"*^^'''''-,y t^^'-'^' t'll ^« fi"*i a neTprontl;;- 
But therp i« n^ wl^t""^." wildness and the skies we used to know. 
But there is no West— 'tis conquered, and I don't know where to go." 

— JAMES W. FOLEY. 



chaptp:]r II. 



OCCUPIED FOR INDIAN TRADE. 

The Hudson's Bay Company. — Prince Rupert's Land. — The North-West 
and X. Y. Companies. — Alexander Henry's Red River Brigade. — 
The Embarkation. — The Indian Hunting Grounds, abounding in 
Bears, Beavers and Buffalo. — Terrorized by the Sioux. — The Park 
River Post. — The Vicious Element of Liquor. — Sacrifice and 
Thanksgiving. — Story of the British Flag. — An Attempt at Brib- 
ery. — Hunters and the Spoils. — Contracts with the Lords of the 
Forest. — Early Trading Posts. — Pembina Post Established. 

"For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along- 
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong'. 
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame, 
Through its ocean-sundered fibres, feels the gush of joy or shame — 
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim." 

—JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 

The Hudson's Bay Company. 
Prince Rupert's Land. 

In 1609, Henry Hudson, a navigator of English birth, sailing un- 
der the flag of fhe Dutch West Indies, ascended the stream now known 
as Hudson River, discovered by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524. The 
next year he explored Hudson Bay, and perished on the voyage. In 
1667, the Duke of York and Prince Rupert, formed a company in Eng- 
land for the exploration of Hudson Bay with a view to trade, and 
two vessels were dispatched for the purpose; one of them the "Non- 
such Ketch," commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam of Boston, 
reaching Hudson Bay in September of the following year. The win- 
ter was spent in that region at Fort Charles. They returned to Bos- 
ton, and thence to London in 1669, and proceeded to organize the 
Hudson's Bay Company, which was chartered by Charles II, May 2, 
1670, the King himself, his brother, the Duke of York, and his nephew. 
Prince Rupert, leading a long list of distinguished stockholders. They 
were granted exclusive privileges on Hudson Bay and along the 
streams emptying into the bay and their tributaries, embracing a 
vast region which came to be known as Rupert's Land, including the 
Red River country and the streams tributary to the Red River, until 
restricted by the location of the international boundary after the 
Revolutionary War. 

The Hudson's Bay €tompany had full power to own, occupy, 
govern, sell and convey and were authorized to maintain armies and 
levy war, if necessary for defense, but for more than one hundred 



6 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

years they had been content to confine their attention to the shores 
of Hudson Bay, and to trade with the Indians visiting their factories, 
as their trading posts on the bay were called. But the French 
traders from Montreal were occupying portions of their country, and 
were pushing on beyond them, while strong opposition had arisen in 
England, which demanded the annulment of their charter, or at least 
an equal opportunity for trade. In 1797, they extended their trade 
to North Dakota points on the Red River, and to the Missouri River 
and other places west and north. They continued to own, occupy 
and govern Rupert's Land until 1869, when they sold their possessory 
rights to Great Britain, and in 1870, Rupert's Land became ^an inde- 
pendent province in the Dominion of Canada, known as Manitoba. 

The Hudson's Bay Company, however, continued in business as a 
commercial organization and still occupy and govern leased territor: 
in the British possessions. 

The North-West Company Organized. 

In 1783, the rival Montreal traders consolidated under the name 
of the "North-West Company," and pushed its trade into new and 
hitherto unexplored regions. Sir Alexander McKenzie leaving on his 
first expedition on behalf of this company in 1789, exploring the Mc- 
Kenzie River and making other important discoveries, points on the 
Upper Mississippi having been occupied. 

The Hudson's Bay Company had greater resources and were push- 
ing their explorations with much vigor. In 1801 another company 
was organized, with which Sir Alexander McKenzie became interested 
on his return from Europe, known as the "X. Y. Company," these 
initials being adopted for marking their goods, in order to distinguish 
them from the "H. B." of the Hudson's Bay Company and the "N. W." 
of the North-West Company. In selecting this title they chose the 
letters of the alphabet immediately following the "W" of the North- 
West Company, to let them know they were right after them, and 
intended to make their opposition merciless. 
Alexander Henry. 
The Red River Brigade. 

In the year 1800, Alexander Henry, a nephew of Alexander Henry 
mentioned in connection with the early fur trade on Lake Superior, 
but known in history as Alexander Henry, Jr., was the leader of an 
expedition, which set out from Lake Superior with Turtle River for 
its objective point. It was Henry's intention to establish his head- 
quarters on that stream for use while in charge of the Red River 
District to which he had recently been assigned by the North-West 
Company. His party bore the title of "Henry's Red River Brigade." 

The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thomp- 
son, 1799-1814, edited by Dr. Elliot Coues, were published by Francis 
P. Harper, New York, 1897. Dr. Coues was a surgeon in the U. S. 
Army and the medical officer on the boundary survey of 1872-1876, 
and was familiar with much of the country of which Thompson and 
Henry wrote. Thompson, learned in mathematics and astronomy, 
was in charge of the location of the boundary line on behalf of the 
North-West Company of which he was the geographer. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. ^ 

The Embarkation. 

After a portage of nine miles from Lake Superior to a point on 
Pigeon River, Alexander Henry and his party left for the mouth of 
the Assiniboine, on the Red River, July 19, 1800, where they arrived 
on the 17th day of August. 

On starting from Lake Superior, the men were each given a two- 
gallon keg of liquor, and on the fifth day they reached the height of 
land where they "finished their small kegs and fight many a battle." — 
(Henry's Journal.) 

At the first stop three leading Indians accompanying the ex- 
pedition, were each given various articles of merchandise, including 
a scarlet faced coat and hat, a red, round feather, a white linen shirt, 
a pair of leggings, a breech clout, a flag, a fathom of tobacco, and a 
nine-gallon keg of mixed liquors — two gallons of alcohol to nine 
gallons of water being the usual mixture. After giving them their 
presents, Henry made a formal address to the Indians, encouraging 
them to be good and follow him to Turtle River, and not to be afraid 
of the Sioux, but just as he was giving them their farewell glass, be- 
fore their return to their tents to enjoy their liquor, some of the 
women reported that they had heard several shots fired in the meadow. 
A council was immediately held. Henry ordered them to leave theif 
liquor with him and put off their drinking until the next day, but they 
had tasted the liquor and must drink, even at the risk of their lives. 
They requested Henry to order his men to mount guard during the 
night. 

Having reached the Assiniboine August 17th, on the 18th the 
party divided, and that portion intended for the Red River embarked 
on the 20th. There were four canoes in this party, and a total of 
twenty-one persons. Two horses were led along the shore, and Henry 
claimed that these were the first introduced into the Red River Valley 
by the whites. Such an assemblage of canoes was called a "brigade," 
and the master, standing between the company and the men, was 
called the "bourgeois." 

Each canoe was loaded with twenty-six packages of merchandise, 
or an equivalent in baggage, each package weighing 90 pounds. The 
packages were so arranged for convenience in transportation. There 
were many portages on the route from Lake Superior, ranging in 
length from short distances to 3000 feet, over which both canoes and 
goods were packed, each man carrying from 90 to 180 pounds, the 
bowman and the helmsman carrying the canoe. 

In the first canoe there were — First, Alexander Henry, the 
bourgeois; second, Jacques Barbe, voyageur, conductor or bowman; 
third, Etienne Charbonneau, voyageur, steerer; fourth, Joseph Dubois, 
voyageur, steerer; fifth, Angus McDonald, voyageur, midman; sixth, 
Antoine Laf ranee, voyageur, midman; seventh, Pierre Bonga, a negro 
servant of Mr. Henry. 

Second canoe — Eighth, Michael Langlois (sometimes mentioned as 
Coloret), clerk, with his wife and daughter; ninth, Andree Lagasse 
(sometimes mentioned as Lagace or La Gasser), voyageur, conductor, 
with his wife; tenth, Joachim Daisville (sometimes mentioned as Dan- 



8 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

yille and once as Rainville in transcribing Henry's Journal), voyageur, 
steerer; eleventh, Andree Beauchemin, voyageur, midman; twelfth, 
Jean Baptiste Benoit, voyageur, midman. 

Third canoe — Thirteen, Jean Baptiste Demerais, interpreter, wife 
and two children; fourteen, Jean Baptiste Larocque, Sr., voyageur, 
conductor; fifteen, Jean Baptiste Larocque, Jr., voyageur, steerer; 
sixteenth, Etienne Roy, voyageur, midman; seventeenth, Francois 
Rogers, Sr., voyageur, midman. 

Fourth canoe — Eighteenth, Joseph Masson (or Maceon), voyageur, 
conductor, wife and child; nineteenth, Charles Bellegarde, voyageur, 
steerer; twentieth, Joseph Hamel, voyageur, midman; twenty-first, 
Nicholas Pouliotte, voyageur, midman. 

The Indian Contingent. 

There were forty-five Indian canoes, also called a brigade, loaded 
with Indians and their families, who accompanied Mr. Henry for the 
purpose of engaging in hunting and trapping, under an agreement to 
receive goods on credit to be paid for from the proceeds of the chase. 

Flatmouth, a noted Indian mentioned in connection with the ex- 
plorations of Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, was among the Indians, also, 
Maymiutch, Charlo, Corbeau, Short Arms, and Buffalo. They were 
mainly Chippewas, usually called "Salteurs" by Mr. Henry, and a 
small contingent of Ottowas. 

September 2nd, 1800, the brigade divided; a portion remaining 
for the winter near where Morris, Manitoba, is situated, the others, 
\iz., Henry, Demerais, Bellegarde, Daisville, Rogers, Benoit, the two 
Larocques, Beauchemin, Lafrance, Barbe, Charbonneau, McDonald and 
Bonga, going on to Park River. 

Tlie Hunting Grounds. — Bears, Beaver, Buffalo, Deer and Other Game. 

The large number of bears on Red River and its tributaries, and 
reported to be on the Sheyenne River and Devils Lake, was a remark- 
able feature. The territory contiguous to Devils Lake and the 
Sheyenne was disputed ground, where it was dangerous for either the 
Sioux or Chippewa to hunt, and became the favorite breeding place for 
the bears; there they were seldom molested. As the party advanced 
up the Red River, the Indians killed four otter and three bears. They 
complained that Henry's men "made so much noise" that they could 
not kill bears and other large game. 

September 6, the Indians killed four bears and eight deer. While 
they were pitching their temporary camp, a bear came to the river to 
drink. Henry shot him, but he ran off, and was found sitting under 
a brush heap, grumbling and licking his wounds. Another shot killed 
him. The next day seven bears were noticed drinking from the 
river at the same time. Red deer were whistling in every direction, 
and a wolf came near and was killed. The men killed a sturgeon 
with an axe. 

They arrived at Park River September 8, 1800, about 2 p. m., 
and it being plain that the Indians would go no farther up the river, 
it was determined to build a post at that point. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 9 

Terrorized by the Sioux. 

The Sioux were the terror of all the neighboring tribes, and the 
enemy of all. They wandered over the prairies in large bodies and in 
small, attacking when they thought it safe, lying in wait in ravines 
or timber, to attack women or children, as they came for water, 
berries or roots. They lingered about the camps in the hope of secur- 
ing scalps, when they would return to their home as "big Indians," 
and bask in the sunshine of admiration. 

For these reasons, there was an ever-present feeling of dread 
of the Sioux, not only among the Chippewa, but also among the 
Mandans, Gros Ventres (Hidatsa) and Arikaras, which led to like 
raids and like outrages by them against the Sioux. 

The Cheyennes formerly occupied the Sheyenne River country. 
They were friendly to both the Sioux and Chippewa but* the latter 
distrusted them, and about 1740 fell upon them and destroyed their 
villages, and forced them to flee across the Missouri River, when 
they became allied to the Sioux. Thereafter, for many years, neither 
Sioux or Chippewa attempted to hunt in the Sheyenne or Devils 
Lake country, unless in sufficient force to defend themselves against 
any attack likely to be made upon them. 

About the year 1780, the Chippewa went to York Factory on Hud- 
son Bay for supplies, leaving their old men and women in camp 
near Lake Winnipeg. During their absence, the Sioux attacked their 
village and killed a great number of the old men, women and children. 
The place where this occurred is now known as Netley Creek. 

Some years prior to 1800, a wintering trader of the name of 
Reaume, attempted to make peace between the Sioux and the Chip- 
pewa. The meeting was held on the Sheyenne. They at first appeared 
reconciled to each other, but the Sioux took guns and ammunition 
away from the Chippewa giving them in return bows and arrows; 
to some bows without arrows, and to some arrows without bows, 
and after the Chippewa dispersed on the plains, followed and killed 
many of them. 

In the fall of 1805, there was a battle on the Crow Wing, be- 
tween the Sioux and Chippewa in which the Sioux were defeated, 
and on December 29, 1807, an engagement took place between 30 
lodges of Sioux and the Chippewa on the Crow Wing, in which the 
Sioux lost 20 lodges and a great many horses. On this date a battle 
was fought on Wild Rice River in which the Sioux were defeated. 

It required little more than the mention of the name Sioux to 
create a panic among Henry's Indians. At one time two boys were 
playing Sioux to frighten the other children. The Indians became 
alarmed; the warriors stripped to breech clouts for war, and the 
women and children were hurried into the fort for safety. Henry's 
men were called to arms, and the appearance of some of them is 
described as ghastly; their lips contorted, eyes rolling and counte- 
nances pale as death. Any trifling circumstance was sufficient to 
inflame their imaginations, for the moment at least — on one occasion 
the slamming of a door caused a sleepless night. But their fears 
were not always unfounded. 



10 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Location of Trading Posts. 

The choice of the trading posts was largely determined by the 
presence of beaver dams. Park River, Pembina, Tongue and Turtle 
Rivers, were particularly desirable on account of the dams along 
those streams. The same was true of the Sheyenne and Knife 
Rivers, and their tributaries, and other streams emptying into the 
Missouri River or its branches. 

The number of beaver dams on Park River influenced Alexander 
Henry in his choice of it as a site for a trading post. There were 
beaver dams on almost every creek. These were necessary to the 
life of the beaver, which in the winter time fed on roots or shrubs 
to be found under the ice, and on the bark of trees which they were 
able to fell and haul to their lodges for use in constructing and 
strengthening their dams, the bark being stripped for food as required. 

Deatlis Among tlie Beaver. 

About 1805, an epidemic broke out among the beaver. John 
Tanner in his "Narrative" gives the following description of this 
calamity: 

"Some kind of a distemper was prevailing among these animals, 
which destroyed them in great numbers. I found them dead and dying 
in the water, on the ice and on the land. Sometimes I found one that, 
having cut a tree half down, had died at its roots; sometimes one 
who had drawn a stick of timber half way to his lodge, was lying 
dead by his burden. Many of them which I opened were red and 
bloody about the heart. Those in large rivers and running water 
suffered least. Almost all of those in ponds and stagnant water 
died." 

September 8th, Henry's party camped at Park River, and Mr. 
Henry and Jean Baptlste Demerais went up the river about two miles, 
and saw two large harts, and killed one on which the fat was four 
inches thick. 

The farther they went up the river the more numerous the bears 
and red deer became, and on the shore raccoon tracks were plentiful, 
The Park River Post. 

Park River, Mr. Henry states, was so named from the fact that 
the Assiniboine Indians made a park or pound there for buffalo, head- 
ing them in from all points, as they became aroused from any cause, 
and then slaughtering the number desired. 

The spot selected for the fort on September 9, 1800, was on the 
west side of Park River, about three-quarters of a mile from the 
mouth. The buildings consisted of a stockade, dwelling house, store- 
house and shop, all made of oak, for which 3,114 pieces of timber 
were used. They were completed on the 20th of September, 1800, 
and a flagstaff 55 feet high was erected on the 28th. The British 
Flag the "First Union Jack," a red flag, with the crosses of St. 
George of England and St. Andrew of Scotland, presumably the first 
of any kind to float in North Dakota, was raised every Sunday. 
Tiie Evolution of the British Flag. — Its Origin and History. 

The first ensign known to history, was the raising of the cross 
on a banner as the emblem and sign of Christianity. This in the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. H 

fourth century displaced the monogram of Christ used by the earlier 
Christians and was finally adopted as the insignia of the Church of 
Rome and used by Pope Urban II during the first crusade to in- 
dicate the special cause in which his armies were engaged; the several 
nationalities being known by the form and color of the cross, which 
was borne not only on their banners but on helmet, shoulder, breast 
and back. Thus Italy bore the cross of blue; Spain, red; France, 
white; Germany, black; England, yellow, and Scotland, the white 
saltire (diagonal cross) of St. Andrew, and the crosses were arbi- 
trarily retained after the crusades as a distinction of nationality, super- 
seded in the course of time by other devices designed by popular 
choice or royal decree. 

In the third crusade, the banner of Richard I (Cour de Lion) 
King of England, was a white Latin cross, and remained the English 
national ensign until appropriated by Simon de Mountfort, Earl of 
Leicester, as a badge of a faction, A. D. 1265, and as early as the 
reign of Edward III in the fourteenth century, the red cross of St. 
George on a white ground was adopted as the national banner and the 
army badge. 

Scotland retained her cross of St. Andrew, a white saltire on a 
blue ground from the time of the crusades, and when in 1603, James 
VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England and the Scots 
claimed precedence for their cross of St. Andrew over the cross of 
St. George, the King, to preserve the peace, on the 12th of April, 
1606, commanded all subjects of Great Britain travelling by sea to 
bear at the mast head the red cross of St. George and the white 
cross of St. Andrew united according to a design made by his heralds. 
This flag was called the "King's colors." At the same time all vessels 
belonging to South Britain, or England, might wear the cross of St. 
George, and all vessels belonging to North Britain, or Scotland, might 
wear the cross of St. Andrew, as had been their customi. All vessels 
were forbidden to carry any other flag at their peril. 

The "King's colors" was the "First Union Jack," and contained 
the blazonry of the rival ensigns of England and Scotland, united by 
an earlier process than that of quartering, in which the cross and 
the saltire were blended in a single subject. This was effected by 
surrounding the cross of St. George with a narrow border, or fimbria- 
tion, of white, to represent its white field upon the banner of St. 
Andrew. 

The voyages of the most celebrated English navigators were made 
under the cross of St. George, but Jamestown, Plymouth, Salem and 
Boston, were settled under the "King's colors;" many English vessels 
carrying the cross of St. George according to royal permission. Under 
the cross of St. George two fleets, numbering in all 28 ships, and 
carrying 1700 passengers, sailed from England, in 1630, and populated 
eight plantations in Massachusetts Bay Colony, under the first charter, 
in which train bands were formed who bore this cross as an ensign. 

During the Civil War in England in 1641, the standard of Charles 
I, was a large blood-red streamer, bearing the royal arms quartered, 
with a hand pointing to a crown above, and a motto, "give Caesar his 



12 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

due." The badge of the royal troops was red; that of the Par- 
liamentary troops orange, the Scotch blue. The flag in general use 
during the Commonwealth was blue, with the white canton and cross 
of St. George, and a harp of Ireland in the field. This was also the 
admiral's flag. One of the banners was quartered with those of 
England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The first and fourth quarters, 
white with the red cross of St. George for England and Wales; the 
second, blue with the white saltire for Scotland; the third, a harp 
with a golden frame and silver strings on a blue ground for Ireland. 

After the death of Charles I, the new council of state on the 22nd 
of February, 1648, restored the red cross as the flag of the navy. In 
the British colonies the same flag was retained, except in 
Massachusetts Bay, w*here all flags had been laid aside except upon 
Castle Island in Boston harbor where the colors called the King's 
arms were displayed. In 1651, Parliament ordered the restoration of 
the old standard of St. George as the colors of England, and they 
were advanced by order of the General Court on all necessary 
occasions at Castle Island. 

In 1664, two years after the restoration, Charles II sent a fleet 
of four ships, carrying 90 guns, 400 troops and four commissioners, 
to New England, where they obtained 200 recruits, and the aid re- 
quired, and sailed for New Amsterdam bent on conquest, and with 
further volunteer forces from Connecticut and Long Island achieved 
their purpose, changed the name to New York in honor of James, 
the Duke of York, the King's brother — afterwards James II — and 
raised the cross of St. George over the Dutch tri-color. The British 
colonies in America were then flying the cross of St. George from 
Labrador to Florida. 

In February, 1697, six Union flags, the revival of the "King's 
colors," were shipped to New York, in response to an application for 
flags for "His Majesty's Fort." 

After this there were slight variations, such as a crimson flag with 
the cross of St. George and a tree cantoned in the upper staff quarter, 
and a blue flag with the same cross and a globe instead of the tree, 
until March 1, 1707, when the flag of the new nation of "Great Britain" 
in the reign of Queen Anne, was ordered by Parliament to be com- 
posed of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, the old "King's 
colors" — The "First Union Jack" — joined on a crimson banner, and 
that the flag of the admiral, who carried a red flag, should be disused, 
and the "First Union Jack" substituted therefor. This was declared 
to be the "ensign armorial of the United Kingdom of Great Britain," 
and was the national flag for nearly a century under which the most 
brilliant naval battles were fought. Under its folds the power of 
France was driven from the East Indies, successive conquests of her 
strongholds in North America leading up to the heights of Abraham, 
where it triumphed at Quebec. 

In the flag which the American colonies raised against Great 
Britain in 1775, were the "King's colors" of the British flag and the 
stripes, red and white, of the flag of the East India Company, and 
this was used until the adoption of the stars and stripes, June 14, 1777, 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 13 

On November 25, 1783, when the British sailed out of the harbor 
on the evacuation of New York, the cross was lost to view as an 
emblem of national authority, with two exceptions, viz., the tem- 
porary occupation of the British in the war of 1812, and a battle 
flag of the Southern Confederacy of 1861-'65, which bore a blue saltire 
studded with stars on a red field. 

From the first day of January, 1801, the "Second Union Jack," 
the "Union Jack" of today, superseded the flag of King James and 
Queen Anne. In consequence of the legislative union, its blazonry 
must be incorporated with that of Ireland to comprehend the three 
crosses — St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick — in a single device 
formed by the combination of a cross and two saltires. As before, 
the blue field of St. Andrew forms the field, then the two diagonal 
crosses, the one white and the other red, are formed into a single 
compound saltire of the two tinctures alternating, the white having 
precedence. A narrow edging of white is next added to each red side 
of this new figure, to represent the white field of St. Patrick, as the 
narrow edging of white about the red cross represented the white 
field of St. George, and, finally, the red cross of St. George fimbriated 
with white as in the "First Union Jack," is charged over all. In this 
device the broad diagonal white members represent the silver saltire of 
St. Andrew; the red diagonal members, the saltir gules (red) of St. 
Patrick, and the narrow diagonal white lines are added, in order to place 
the saltire gules on a field argent (silver). It will, also, be observed 
that the diagonal red and the broad diagonal white members rep 
resent the two saltires of St. Andrew and St. Patrick in combination, 
and that the fimbriated red cross in front gives prominence to the 
cross of St. George. 

Since 1864, the white ensign alone remains the naval flag of Great 
Britain, the blue ensign the mark of the Royal Naval Reserve, and 
the red of the merchant service. 

Life at the Post. 

At 4 o'clock of the day the choice of site was made, a herd of 
buffalo came down to drink within a few rods of the camp. At the 
southward there were herds of them as far as the eye could see, and 
during the night the camp was alarmed by a large herd at the river. 
From all directions came the bellowing of the buffalo and the whistling 
of the deer. The next day a band of deer, followed soon after by 
four bears, crossed the river, and a day later Mr. Henry, climbing to 
the top of a tall oak, saw buffalo and deer on all sides. 

A stage had been constructed at the camp, and the Indians loaded 
it with choice meats and bears' fat. The men were employed cutting 
up and melting bears' fat, which was poured into wooden troughs 
and sacks, made of deer skins. 

Bears made prodigious ravages in the brush and willows. The 
plum trees were torn to pieces, and every tree that bore fruit shared 
the same fate. The tops of the oaks were also very roughly handled, 
broken and torn down to get acorns. 

Grizzly bears were killed and many raccoons taken during the 
fall. The great abundance of both red and fallow deer is frequently 



14 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA, 

mentioned. The men are reported as taking many wolves and some 
fishers. The female wolves enticed the dogs from the fort, and when 
they came back they came back they were horribly chewed up by 
their wild cousins. The coons had two inches of fat on their backs. 
The hunters came in from Grand Forks with thirty beavers. The 
sturgeon continued to jump day and night and many were taken in 
nets extended across the river — sometimes upwards of 100 a day, 
weighing from 30 to 150 pounds each. 

September 20, 1800, the day the fort was finished, the Indians 
having gone a few miles above Park River, reported that they had 
killed 40 bears, some red deer, moose and a few beavers. The Indian 
lad at the fort killed two bears. 

The Vicious Element of Liquor. 

At this time intoxicating liquor was being used by the rival 
traders as a leading element to attract trade, and was distributed 
among the Indians by the keg, jug or bottle, to any who might apply 
— often without price — and sometimes used to incite the Indians to 
plunder, and in some instances to murder those who interferred by 
successful competition. The Indians had become demoralized and de- 
generated to an extent almost beyond belief. As one writer described 
the situation: "Indians were warring with Indians, traders with 
traders, clerks with clerks, trappers with trappers, voyageurs with 
voyageurs." 

While the post was being built at Park River, the Indians were 
given a keg of rum "to encourage them to pay their debts," and 
supposing the Indians might now drink in safety, on September 18, 
Mr, Henry began to trade rum, and they were soon drunk, men and 
women, and some of the children. 

On September 21, the Indians were sent nine gallons of mixed 
liquor, and the following day paid their debts with pelts caught on 
their hunt, and received more liquor, with the usual result. Henry 
took the children into the fort, for their safety, and about midnight 
one of the Indians tried to chop his way through the gate to get 
more liquor. On September 28, when the flagstaff was raised at the 
fort, the men were given two gallons of alcohol and some tobacco 
and flour "for merry-making." 

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving. 

October 17th, the Indians having killed a grizzly bear, thereby 
taking the life of an uncommon animal, in order to properly render 
thanks to Manitou and appease the spirit of the bear, it was thought 
necessary to give a feast, and liquor was believed to be the most 
effective agent in gaining the favor of Manitou and satisfying the 
bear's ghost. They secured the liquor and a quarter of a yard oT 
red cloth for a sacrifice. 

An Attempt at Bribery. 

After all, human passion unrestrained is about the same among 
all men, and impulses are liable to take the same direction. 

October 25, 1800, Henry's hunter reported that the leading In- 
dians wanted him to stop hunting so that Henry would be obliged 
to pay a higher price for meat, whereupon the bourgeois ordered that 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 



15 



thereafter the Indians should receive no liquor excepting in exchange 
tor meat. This created consternation among the Indians disposed to 
make trouble. They attempted to bribe the hunter by giving him 
a drum trimmed with all of the symbols of the Wabbano medicine, 
and a number of different articles of superior value and high con- 
sideration among the Indians, such as rarely fail to bring satisfactory 
results when given to accomplish some particular object, but they 
were not sufficient to sway the hunter from his loyalty to his employer. 

On the retirement of the Indians, Henry treated his people to a 
gallon of alcohol and a few pounds of sugar, in order that they might 
make a feast after their arduous labor in establishing and building 
the Park River Post. 

"October 31st, Indians drinking quietly. 

"November 2nd. Gave the Indians liquor after their successful 
hunt. 

"November 4th. Gave the Indians a nine-gallon keg of liquor on 
their promise to pay their debts on their return from the hunt." 

Every opportunity was seized for an occasion to encourage the 
use of intoxicating liquor for the reason that the trader's greatest 
profit was in its sale, and gave him an advantage over the Indians 
who, by its use became incapable of protecting their interests. Jan- 
uary 1, 1801, the New Year was ushered in by several volleys which 
alarmed a camp of Indians near by. The men came running in armed, 
having ordered the women to hide themselves. But they were agree- 
ably received and got a share of "what was going" — some shrub and 
cakes. Every man, woman and child was soon at the fort; all was 
bustle and confusion. Henry gave his men some high wine (alcohol), 
flour and sugar; "the Indians purchased liquor, and by sunrise every 
soul of them was raving drunk, even the children." On the 19th there 
was another drinking match among the Indians. An Indian shot his 
wife with an arrow through her body and her supposed lover through 
his arm. 

Hunters and the Spoils. 

A very successful winter was spent at Park River. Henry took 
at his station, 643 beaver skins, 125 black bear, 23 brown bear, 2 grizzly 
bear, 83 wolf, 102 red fox, 7 kitt, 178 fisher, 96 otter, 62 marten and 
97 mink. 

Michael Langlois, clerk on the Red River Brigade, who remained 
in charge of the party at Morris during the winter of 1800-'01, had 
also a station at Hair Hills (Pembina Mountains) that winter. The 
returns showed 832 beaver skins, 52 black bear, 20 brown bear, 4 
grizzly bear, 111 wolf, 82 red fox, 9 kitt, 37 raccoon, 108 fisher, 60 
otter, 26 marten, 68 mink and various other skins, bags of pemmican, 
kegs of grease and bales of meat. 

Andree Lagasse, "a voyageur, conductor," in the Red River 
Brigade was sent from Morris to trade with the Indians in the Pem- 
bina Mountains the winter of 1800-'01. With him went Joseph Dubois, 
"voyageur, steerer or helmsman," and later they were succeeded by 
Joseph Hamel, "voyageur and midman" in the Red River Brigade. 



16 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Nicholas Rubrette and Francois Sint were employees of Henry 
in 1800 and later. 

Contracts With the "Lords of the Forest." 

Contracts were made with the Indians by Mr. Henry for the sea- 
son. For an agreement to procure 60 beaver skins they were allowed 
credit to the extent of 20 skins. Thread and other necessary little 
things were supplied gratis. On returning from their hunt, if they 
paid their debts their credit was renewed to the same extent as before. 
All transactions with the Indians of those times were based on beaver 
skin values. 

Articles given gratis to the Indians who took credit, were one 
scalper, two folders and four flints each to the men, and to the 
women two awls, two needles, one skein of thread, one fire steel, a 
little Vermillion, and a half a fathom of tobacco. 
Little Crane the Hunter. 

Little Crane, a Chippewa member of Henry's Indian Brigade, on 
September 12, 1800, while they were building the fort at Park River, 
was appointed "hunter" to receive for the season the value of 60 
beaver skins and to be furnished with gun and ammunition, and 
clothing for himself and wife. 

Crooked Legs. 

September 24-26, 1800, inclusive. Little Crane hunted with Crooked 
Legs, Crow (Corbeau) and Charlo. The hunter killed a bear and a 
deer. Crooked Legs killed a bear, and they with Corbeau and Charlo 
returned to the post, each with a good pack of beaver skins. They 
found plenty of beavers, and only killed what they could carry. 

While celebrating at Park River, Crooked Legs stabbed his young 
wife, after having been beaten by her, wounding her so severely that 
tliere was little hope for her recovery. In the demonstration against 
him which resulted, his own son joined, all being as it is written, 
"blind drunk," and Crooked Legs sitting in his tent singing, and saying 
he was not afraid to die. But Mr. Henry opportunely interfered, and 
Crooked Legs was forgiven by every one but his wife. On this 
occasion, it is said, that the Indians kept up the carousal until there 
was a rumor that the Sioux were coming, when they ceased drinking. 
To his credit it is recorded, that when Crooked Legs realized that his 
life was saved, he "sobered up," and being a "great doctor" used his 
skill to cure his wife's wounds, which attention seems to have been 
received by her with slight appreciation, but accepting her censure 
v/ith humility, he urged her to take courage and live. Evidently she 
consented, for in another fit of intoxication, it is alleged, she beat 
him and severely roasted him with a fire brand. 

Charlo. 
The career of Charlo as a hunter was very brief, and the first 
mention of him in "Henry's Journal" shows him in a bad light, offer- 
ing to sell his 12-year-old daughter to Mr. Henry for a dram of liquor, 
and his propensity for drink was again demonstrated on September 
11, 1800, when he received liquor in pay for four bear skins. His 
brother Maymiutch, four days later, while hunting with Mr. Henry 
killed the same number of bears. 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. I7 

Mr. Henry desired to visit Grand Forks, and other points on the 
Upper Red River, with a view to considering the possibilities of trade, 
and invited Charlo to go with him, but Charlo feared the Sioux. 
However, on the promise of a keg of liquor on his return he risked 
his life and went to Grand Forks, and by an offer equally tempting, 
r.amely, "a treat" when he got back to Grand Forks, he was in- 
duced to go on to Goose River, but here he balked. Gtoose River 
was the limit. He returned to Grand Forks, received his "treat" and 
after the first drink wanted to go at once and invade the Sioux 
country; after the second he was ready to go alone, and it was 
necessary to restrain him after the third. He would advance to the 
edge of the darkness surrounding his camp fire, and shaking his fist 
call the Sioux "dogs," and "old women," and invite them to come on 
and he would do the rest. He finally fell into the deep sleep of in- 
toxication and the Sioux troubled him no more. 

After all Charlo was not worse than his white cousins of a later 
period, one of whom after taking a drink of Moorhead whiskey was 
sure he could whip any man in that city, and after each successive 
drink extended the area of his influence until he became exhausted, 
when he murmured softly: "I tank I take in too much territory." 

Charlo's wife died and he obtained a keg of rum "to help wash 
the sorrow from his heart," and to aid his friends in properly lament- 
ing her departure. A few days later his daughter died, and not long 
after still another daughter, and Charlo had two more occasions for 
over-indulgence which he did not fail to improve. 

Something was always happening to Charlo. He was taken verx 
111 and the medicine man was called, but before he arrived Charlo's 
sister-in-law came and sat beside him, screaming and howling, call- 
ing on his deceased wife by name and frequently sobbing, but was 
soon the gayest of those in attendance. When the doctor came he 
began beating a drum, singing, dancing, tumbling and tossing and 
blowing on the sick man, until he worked himself into a foam, when, 
redoubling his exertions, he burst his drum, trampled it in pieces 
and went away exhausted. His patient is described as having been 
'almost worried to death." 

January 15, 1801, Charlo died. His brother, Maymiutch, wanted 
liquor with which to properly show his grief. He said he knew why 
his brother died, and why his wife and two children passed away, 
all within a few months of each other. It was because Charlo went 
to Mouse River and stole three horses and the white men there 
threw "bad medicine" on him. He knew Henry did not do it, but 
his friends advised him to take revenge on him. He would not do 
that, but he did want some liquor. His brother he said was a bad 
Indian who stole horses, cheated the traders, and never paid his 
debts, so that even though they had caused his death he would not 
blame them, but his heart was oppressed and he wanted a "drink." 

Early Trading Posts. 
In 1664, Daniel de Greysolon Sieur Duluth established a trading 
post at Lake Nipigon, extending his explorations to the region of 
Minnesota and Dakota, and in 1728, was followed by Sieur Pierre 



18 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 

Gaultier de la Verendrye, who also built a trading post that year on 
Lake Nipigon; in 1731, he built another on the Lake of the Woods, 
and in 1733, still another on Lake Winnipeg. He visited the Red River 
Valley and extended his explorations to Grand Forks, which appears 
to have been so called by him from the confluence of the Red Lake 
and Red River. In 1736, his son and twenty of his men were killed 
by the Indians on the Lake of the Woods. 

At this period rival factions of Montreal traders were occupying 
the country, between whom bitter warfare was being waged, each 
trying to incite the Indians against his opponents, and against the 
Hudson's Bay Company, which was inimical to both, until the Indians 
V. ere on the point of uprising. 

The Smallpox Scourge of 1780. 
In the year 1780, appeared the great scourge of smallpox at the 
Mandan Villages, and through the Assiniboines, who attacked the 
villages during the prevalence of the disease, it became epidemic 
throughout the whole Northwest, continuing until 1782, entirely de- 
stroying some bands and depleting others to an alarming extent. It 
is claimed that of one band of four hundred lodges, but ten persons 
survived, and of the large number of traders who had occupied that 
country but twelve remained. 

In 1783, came the North-West Company, composed of Montreal 
traders consolidated. In 1784, Peter Grant, a young man 20 years of 
age, entered the service of that company, and ten years later, about 
1794, established a trading post on the ground where now stands St. 
Vincent. It was on the east side of the Red River, at the mouth of 
the Pembina River, then called "Panbian" River, and is mentioned 
by Alexander Henry as being the first post established by the North- 
West Company on the Red River. Jean Baptiste Cadotte was at Red 
Lake in 1796-7 and had a wintering establishment at the mouth of the 
Clearwater River, in 1798. 

The Red River country prior to 1797, had received visits from 
traders in the winter, and there had been wintering establishments 
for the purpose of trading, but no permanent posts until Pembina 
was established in 1801. 

John Tanner, called the "White Captive," author of "Tanner's 
Narrative," was among the Indians in the Red River country in 1797, 
and found no Indians or whites at Pembina, a short time previous to 
the building of the post there in that year by Charles Baptiste 
Chaboillez, who named his post "Port Panbian." 

A considerable settlement of Indians followed the building of the 
post, and in March, 1798, David Thompson was entertained by 
Chaboillez while locating the international boundary line in the inter- 
est of the North-West Company, visiting, also, a post known as Roy's 
House on the Salt River, which like that of Chaboillez at Pembina, 
and Grant at St. Vincent, had disappeared when Henry visited these 
points in September, 1800. 

Pembina Post Established. 
The Park River post having been abandoned May 4, 1801, and 
the Langlois party having joined Henry's, the reunited Red River 
Brigade moved down the river to the spot selected originally by 
Chaboillez, and established the post at Pembina. Chief Tabishaw and 
other Indians arrived on the 8th. Nothing was then seen of the 
Indian settlement that was said to have been near the old Fort 
Panbian, erected by Chaboillez, which had entirely disappeared. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE BUFFALO REPUBLIC. 

Riches of the Indians. — The Vast Herds of Buffalo. — A Buffalo Hunt 
on the Sheyenne. — Running the Buffalo. — Making Pemmican. — 
The Missouri River Blockade by Buffalo. — The Last Great Hunt. 

"Upon the Michigan, three moons ago. 

We launched our pirogues for the bison chase, 

And with the Hurons planted for a space. 

With true and faithful hands, the olive stalk. 

But snakes are in the bosoms of their race, 

And though they held with us a friendly talk. 

The hollow peace tree fell beneath their tomahawk." 

THE ONEIDA CHIEF TO THE PLANTER — CAMPBELL. 

Riches of the Indians. 
The herds of buffalo afforded the chief means of subsistence of 
the Indians, while the beaver were the main source of emolument. 
The flesh of the buffalo was dried or put up as pemmican for future 
use, the sinews furnished them with thread, the skins gave material 
for tepees, raiment, bedding, carpets, canoes, bull boats, baskets, 
buckets and cases for pemmican and the fat of bears and other 
animals, strings for their bows, ropes for tethering animals, lariats 
for catching the young buffalo, and at the end were used for shroud 
and coffiin. 

For many years the Indians conserved the buffalo and endeavored 
to prevent the slaughter of more than was necessary for their own 
consumption, but the temptations offered by the traders were too 
great, and they joined in the work of destruction for the means of 
procuring needed supplies and of gratifying their appetite for in- 
toxicating liquors. 

The Vast Herds of Buffalo. 

On nearing the Park River in September, 1800, Alexander Henry 
found numerous herds of buffalo, sometimes forming one continuous 
body as far as the eye could reach, passing sometimes within 800 
feet of the party. Climbing a tall oak at Park River, he noted the 
same conditions, and that the small timber had been entirely de- 
stroyed by them, and great piles of wool lay at the foot of the trees 
they had rubbed against. The ground was trampled as it would be 
in a barnyard, and the grass was entirely destroyed where they had 
come to the river for water. All the way to the Pembina Mountains 



20 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

he found buffalo and in great numbers about Turtle River, Grand 
Forks, Goose River and the Sheyenne. 

One morning at Park River they were awakened by the moving 
herd, which tramped continuously past their camp from before day- 
light until after 9 o'clock in the forenoon. When the river broke up 
in the spring of 1801, large numbers were drowned. They floated 
by the post at Park River for about two days in an unbroken stream, 
and from Pembina to Grand Forks there was scarcely a rod of the 
banks where they had not lodged. An early writer claims that in 
1795, he counted in the streams and on the shore of the Qu' Appelle 
River, 7360 buffalo, drowned by the breaking up of the stream. They 
were simply in incredible numbers and the prairies were black with 
them. About their camp in Pembina in 1802, they had so completely 
destroyed the grass that Henry lost 28 head of horses from starvation, 
and one day a buffalo actually came within the gates of their fort. 

In 1803, Mr. Henry went to the Pembina Mountains and thence 
across the plains to Mouse River and White Earth River, and for 
upwards of a month was not out of sight of buffalo for a single day. 

In 1804, a prairie fire swept over the country around Pembina 
and Mr. Henry reports that in going to the Pembina Mountains he 
was not out of sight of blind and singed buffalo for a moment. They 
were wandering about the prairies, their eyes so swollen that they 
could not see. Their hair was singed, and in many instances the 
skin shriveled. In one instance he found a whole herd roasted, either 
dead or dying. 

In 1805, Lewis and Clark, the explorers, counted 51 herd of buffalo 
from one standpoint on the Missouri River. They found the plains of 
vrbat is now Emmons, Morton, Burleigh, Oliver, Mercer and McLean 
counties, North Dakota, supporting herds quite equal in extent to 
those described by Mr. Henry in the Red River Valley. 

In 1806, Mr. Henry went to the Mandan Villages on the Missouri 
River, and in the Mouse River country was compelled to barricade 
his camp at night to prevent being run over by the moving herds. 

In the narrative of John Tanner, the White Captive, among the 
Chippewa, it is stated that one night as they lay in their camp near 
the Red River they could hear the noise of a buffalo herd which 
proved to be some twenty miles distant. In his words: 

"A part of the herd was all of the time kept in constant rapid 
motion by the severe fights of the bulls. To the noise produced by 
the knocking together of the hoofs when they raised their feet from 
the ground, and their incessant tramping, was added the loud and 
furious roar of the bulls, engaged, as they all were, in the terrifiQ 
and appalling confiicts." 

To this clamor was added the barking and howling of the packs 
of wolves, which always followed the herd and preyed upon the calves, 
and the weak and disabled, or devoured the parts of animals left by 
the hunters. The Indians killed them with bows and arrows and 
caught the young with nooses of leather. 

William H. Keating, the historian of Major Stephen H. Long's 
expedition, spoke of the buffalo as existing in herds of tens of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. £1 

tliousands between the Mississippi and tlie Missouri Rivers, and vast 
numbers in the Red River Valley on both sides of the river. 

General William T. Sherman estimated that the buffalo between 
the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains at the beginning of the 
construction of the Pacific railroads numbered 9,500,000. 

The bones of the animals were afterwards gathered by settlers 
and shipped out of the country by train loads and down the river 
by ship loads. It was the privilege of this writer in 1887, to examine 
a pile of buffalo bones at Minot, N. D., brought in from the adjacent 
prairies. The pile was measured, and the weight of bones belonging 
to a single animal obtained, and it was found that one pile represented 
ever 7000 buffalo. Like shipments were being made from other 
stations, and it was estimated that the bones which had been and 
were being gathered in North Dakota represented over 2,000,000 
animals. Entire trains were loaded at Bismarck in the early days 
with buffalo and other hides, from the steamboats that came down 
the river. 

When the Indian camps were captured at the battle of White Stone 
Hills, in Dickey County in 1863, the fat ran in streams from the dried 
buffalo meat that was destroyed in the conflagration. 

In one season Charles Larpenter, an independent trader, obtained 
5000 buffalo hides at Fort Buford, and in 1845, General John C. Fre- 
mont reported that the output of buffalo hides by the trading com- 
panies had averaged 90,000 annually for several years, but this cov- 
ered only the number killed from November to March when the 
robes were at their best. 

During the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, William 
F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) contracted to furnish the men engaged on the 
work twelve buffalo daily at $500 per month. One day eleven buffalo 
escaped a party of army officers who were running them, but were all 
killed by Cody, who fired but twelve shots. 

William Comstock, a famous buffalo hunter, having disputed Cody's 
right to the title of "Buffalo Bill", a contest was arranged near 
Sheridan, Wyoming, and starting with equal opportunities, Cody 
killed 38, and Comstock 20 before luncheon. In the afternoon two 
herds were encountered and the contest closed with a score of 69 
for Cody and 40 for Comstock. 

Hunting one day with a party of Pawnees, who were glad to have 
killed 22, Cody begged the privilege of attacking the next herd alone, 
and killed 36, very much to the astonishment of the Indians. 

A Buffalo Hunt on the Sheyenne. 

In 1840, Alexander Ross, a Canadian trader, witnessed a buffalo 
hunt on the Sheyenne River, of which he gives the following account: 

"At 8 o'clock the calvacade made for the buffalo, first at a slow 
trot, then at a gallop, and lastly at full speed. Their advance was on 
a dead level, the plains having no hollows, or shelter of any kind, 
to conceal the approach. When within four or five hundred yards, 
the buffalo began to curve their tails and paw the ground, and in a 



22 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA, 

moment more to take flight, and the hunters burst in among them and 
began to fire. 

"Those who have seen a squadron of horse dash into battle may 
imagine the scene. The earth seemed to tremble when the horses 
started, but when the animals fled it was like the shock of an earth- 
quake. The air was darkened, and the rapid firing at last became 
more faint, and the hunters became more distant. 

"During the day at least two thousand buffalo must have been 
killed, for there were brought into camp 1375 tongues. The hunters 
were followed by the carts which brought in the carcasses. Much of 
the meat was useless because of the heat of the season, but the 
tongues were cured, the skins saved, and the pemmican prepared." 

For years buffalo hunting had been carried on as a business, 
under strict organization. A priest accompanied the hunt to look 
after the spiritual welfare of the hunters and their families. The 
women went along to do the dindgery of the camp and care for the 
meat. 

When the herd was reached there was the early morning attack, 
after due preparation, each hunter killing from five to twenty, accord- 
ing to his skill and equipment, and each was able to claim his own 
from the size or form or combination of bullet and buckshot used 
by him. 

When the meat was cared for another assault was made on the 
herd, with which they sometimes kept in touch six to eight weeks, 
the attacks being repeated until all of the carts and available ponies 
were loaded for the return trip. 

In 1849, twelve hundred and ten half-breed carts were among 
the Pembina hunters. When they halted at night the carts were 
formed in a circle, the shafts projecting outwards. Tents were pitched 
in one extremity of the inclosure, and the animals gathered at the 
other end. The camp was a complete organization, captains and 
chiefs being elected to command. No person was allowed to act on 
his own responsibility, nor to use even a sinew without accounting 
for it. No hunter was allowed to lag, or lopp off, or go before, with- 
out permission, each being required to take his turn on guard or 
patrol, and no work was allowed to be done on the Sabbath day. 
A camp crier was appointed, and any offender was proclaimed a 
thief, or whatever the nature of the offense might be. 
Running the Buffalo. 

Charles Cavileer spent over fifty years of his life in the Red River 
Valley. Mrs. Cavileer, his widow, is a grand-daughter of Alexander 
Murray, one of the Selkirk settlers, and a survivor of the Seven Oaks 
massacre; a daughter of Donald Murray, one of the early merchants 
of Winnipeg, and on her mother's side, a grand-daughter of James 
Herron, an old time trader. Speaking of running the buffalo, she said: 

"I can see them now as they started on the hunt. I can see 
tliem rushing into the herd of buffalo, the hunter with his mouth 
filled with balls, loading and firing rapidly. Loose powder was quickly 
poured into the muzzle of the gun and a ball dropped into place, 
and the point of the gun lowered and fired, resulting often in ex- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 23 

plosion, for the reason that the ball had not reached the powder, or 
had been thrown out of place by the quick movement of the gun. 
Riding alongside of the herd, which was on the run with all the 
desperation possible in frightened animals, they were shot down by 
the thousands in a single day, and then the work of pemmican mak- 
ing commenced, on the ground where the animals were slain. 
Making Pemmican. 

"The meat was cut into long strips from half an inch to an inch 
in thickness, and these were hung on racks to dry, with a slow fire 
built under them in order to smoke them a little. When dried and 
smoked slightly, they were placed on the flesh side of a buffalo hide, 
andj whipped until beaten into shreds, and then mixed with hot 
tallow in large kettles. Poured into sacks while soft, the thick, 
pliable mass became so hard that it often required a heavy blow 
to break it. It could be eaten without further preparation, or could 
be cooked with vegetables, and in various ways. If handled properly 
it could be kept for many years perfectly pure and sweet." 

There was always reason to fear danger from an Indian attack 
in hunting on the plains. In 1856, the Pembina hunters were attacked 
by the Yanktons, near Devils Lake, and their horses, buffalo meat 
and supplies were taken from them, the Yanktons claiming the 
parties were hunting in their country without their permission and 
not for their own food, but for commerce, which they would not 
tolerate. 

In 1860, Sir Francis Sykes spent the summer hunting in the 
Devils Lake region, and the next summer a wealthy Englishman, of 
the name of Handberry, organized a party for the same purpose. He 
was accompanied by Captain Calvert, Malcolm Roberts, William Nash 
and Charles E. Payton. George W. Northrup was interpreter and 
guide. Their entire outfit was destroyed or carried away and the 
party taken prisoners by the Tetons, but they were released the next 
day through the friendly offices of the Yanktons, it being represented 
to them that Mr. Handberry was a British subject and only passing 
through their country. They were allowed one team by the Indians 
and escorted beyond the danger line, but the other animals and their 
outfit and supplies were retained. 

Two hunters were found on the James River who told the In- 
dians that they came to hunt and trap. The chief said to them, 
"We hunt, we trap; you go," and they were given to understand that 
If found there on the morrow their lives would pay the forfeits 

Hunting on the plains of the United States became very attractive 
and many titled persons felt and obeyed the impulse so well ex- 
pressed in the following lines: 

"I'll chase the antelope over the plain. 
The tiger's cub I'll bind with a chain. 

And the wild gazelle, with its silvery feet, 
I'll give thee for a playmate sweet." 

—SONG OP OSSIAN E. DODGE, 1850. 

The Buffalo Republic. 

In the summer of 1865, General John M. Corse and staff, visited 
Port Wadsworth on Kettle Lake, afterwards known as Sisseton, North 
Dakota, and participated in a buffalo hunt arranged by the officers 



24 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Of the post, there being a herd of buffalo in the vicinity estimated 
at 30,000. 

The party numbered about 100, and was led by Gabriel Renville, A 
mixed-blood Sioux, Chief of the Indian Scouts, who conducted them 
to the vicinity of the Hawk's Nest, a high peak in the coteaus or 
hills near this point. Renville gave the signal, and he and his party 
of Indian scouts began whooping and yelling, and rushed into the herd, 
followed by the officers and their visitors. One lieutenant of the 
general's staff, who was riding the finest horse of the party, be- 
came so excited that he dropped one revolver and shot his horse in 
the back of the head with the other. Renville was armed with a 
Henry rifle — a sixteen shooter — and, making every shot good, killed 
sixteen buffalo. Charles Crawford, a noted Sioux Indian scout, armed 
in the same manner, killed fifteen, and others killed their proportion. 

Samuel J. Brown, one of the party, attacked an, unusually large, 
fine-looking bull, which he cut out of the herd and chased until he 
nad exhausted his last shot, when the animal turned on him and ran 
him more than three miles. Twice Brown tried to avoid his pur- 
suer or mislead him by dodging around a hill, but the animal would 
siowly ascend it and as soon as he discovered his tormentor, would 
again pursue him. The buffalo was finally killed by the soldiers 
in the immediate vicinity of the camp. 

The visit of General Corse, and the hunt was celebrated in the 
manner usual at frontier posts. In the course of the feasting it was 
resolved that Dakota should be called the Tatanka Republic; tatanka 
being the Indian word for buffalo. Major Robert H. Ross of the 
Second Minnesota Regiment, was chosen president; Major Joseph R. 
Brown of the Minnesota Volunteer Militia, secretary of war; Gabriel 
Renville, "captain-general of the forces operating against the woolly 
buffalo and the wily Sioux," and Captain Arthur Mills, quartermaster 
general. 

The Missouri River Blockaded by Buffalo. 

In 1867, Captain Grant Marsh, proceeding up the Missouri River 
on the steamer "Ida Stockdale," with General Alfred H. Terry and 
staff aboard, encountered many buffalo when they reached the Elk- 
horn Prairie, about 125 miles above Fort Buford. The story as re- 
lated by Marsh in J. Mills Hanson's book, entitled "The Conquest of 
the Missouri," is as follows: 

"Though these animals were so numerous throughout Dakota 
and Montana that some of them were almost constantly visible from 
passing steamboats, either grazing on the open prairie, or resting or 
wallowing near the river, it was in the country above the Yellow- 
stone River that they appeared in greatest numbers for here they 
v/ere accustomed to pass on their northern and southern migrations 
in the spring and autumn. 

"As the 'Stockdale' approached Elkhorn Prairie, the buffalo in- 
creased rapidly in number on either bank; vast herds, extending away 
to the horizon line of the northern bluffs, were moving slowly toward 
the river, grazing as they came. On arriving at the river's brink 
they hesitated, and then snorting and bellowing, plunged into the swift 




^^ . 



THE BUFFALO IN BRONZE 

Modeled by E. W. Deming for the North Dakota Society of the District of 
Columbia, of which he is an honored member. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 25 

running current and swam to the opposite sliore. Wlien the 'Stockdale' 
reached a point nearly opposite the Elkhorn grove, excitement rose 
to a high pitch on board, for the buffalo became so thick in the river 
that the boat could not move, and the engine had to be stopped. In 
front, the channel was blocked by their huge, shaggy bodies, and in 
their struggles they beat against the sides of the stern, blowing and 
pawing. Many became entangled with the wheel, which, for a time, 
could not be revolved without breaking the buckets. As they swept 
towards the precipitous bank of the north shore and plunged over into 
the stream, clouds of dust arose from the crumbling earth, while the 
air trembled with their bellowing and the roar of myriad hoofs. The 
south bank was turned into a liquid mass of mud by the water 
streaming from their sides as they scrambled out, and thundered 
away across the prairie. ***** Several hours elapsed before the 
'Stockdale' was able to break through the migrating herds, and re- 
sume her journey, and they were still crossing, when at last they 
passed beyond view." 

The Last Great Hunt. 

In his book entitled "My Friend, the Indian," Major James Mc- 
Laughlin, gives an account of what was the last buffalo hunt in 
North Dakota, resulting in killing 5000 of the noble beasts, now re- 
duced to a few small herds preserved in parks by the government or 
individuals. Major McLaughlin was then Indian Agent at Standing 
Rock. 

The buffalo had been located 100 miles west, on the head waters 
of the Cannonball River. It was in June, when the buffalo was at his 
best. The camp was made according to tribal customs, and all of 
the honors were accorded the traditional beliefs. Two thousand In- 
dians were seated on the prairie, with due regard to rank, forming 
a crescent-shaped body, the horns of the crescent opening to the west. 
Running Antelope, the leader of the hunt, was seated in the rear of 
a painted stone, made to represent an altar. Eight young men had 
been selected to go ahead and spy out the buffalo. The chief addressed 
them relative to the importance of their mission, and the necessity of 
caution, and closed by administering to each a solemn oath, during 
which the men in the semi-circle put away their pipes. Running 
Antelope filled the sacred pipe, which was lighted with much cere- 
mony, and offered to the earth in front of him to propitiate the 
spirits which make the ground plentiful, and then to the sky, in- 
voking the blessing of the Great Spirit. He took a puff, and passed 
it to the chief of the scouts; the latter placed his hand holding the 
bowTof the pipe on the altar, and then took a puff, each following 
his example. 

When the ceremony was over every man owning a horse was on 
hjs feet, gesticulating and congratulating the scouts on their good 
fortune. Three bushes were set in the ground, and if in riding any- 
one succeeded in knocking down all three of the bushes, a great 
amount of game would be killed. Major McLaughlin led the race, 
and it was his good fortune to knock down all three. The Indians 
were happy. All seemed well. When happy the Indian is exhuberant 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

in his joy, and his cup of happiness that day promised to be filled 
to the very brim. Gall, Crow King, Rain-in-the-Face, John Grass, Spotted 
Horn Bull and other noted men were there. The march lasted four 
days. There were about 600 mounted hunters in the party, and many 
thousand buffalo were quietly grazing on the slopes of a hundred 
elevations as they advanced upon the herd. Some of the hunters 
were armed with bow and arrows, but most of them with repeating 
rifles, and in a few moments the hunt became a slaughter. The In- 
dians killed buffalo until they were exhausted, and when the day's 
work was done over 2000 animals had been slain. Several of the 
Indians were hurt, one dying of heart disease during the excitement 
of the slaughter. The attack was renewed on the herd the next day 
with even greater success, and when it was concluded over 5000 
had been slain, and the meat preserved for the winter's food supply, 
frank Gates and Henry Agard each killed 25 buffalo, and many 
others had made enviable records. 

It was contemporaneous with these results that William E. Curtis, 
the noted traveler, accompanied by the author of these pages, visited 
the Yellowstone River. They were entertained at Glendive by Captain 
James M. Bell of the Seventh U. S. Cavalry, who organized a buffalo 
hunt for their entertainment. They reached the gi'ounds, 20 miles 
down the river, from Glendive, about noon, and encountered a herd 
of about 4000, but being there to see and not to be a part of the 
performance, Curtis and Lounsberry were not mounted. However 
they were allowed to creep up the cut bank of a stream to within 
easy range, when they fired and the stampede commenced. The 
soldiers then rushed in among the herd shooting as they rode along- 
side of the running animals. Seven were killed, that being all that 
were needed for a camp supply of meat. 

The buffalo have passed and are gone. The herds of cattle and 
horses which succeeded them have, also, gone, so far as the open 
range is concerned, and, except in connection with diversified farm- 
ing, the country which once knew them shall know them no more. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FOUNDING OF PEMBINA. 

The Post Named. — Origin of the Name. — The First Farming. — Poultry 
Raising and Manufactures. — The First Child. — Pierre Bonga. — The 
First White Child. — Managers, Employees and Trading Statistics. — 
Buffalo, the Hunter. — Effects of the Liquor Trade at Pembina. — 
The Stain on the Record. — Northwest and X. Y. Consolidation. — 
First Family Names, — Henry Suffers From the Sioux. — Trial of 
the New Policy. — Chief Tabishaw. — Change in Managers. — Out- 
lying Posts Withdrawn. — Anarchy and Hostility. — A Night At- 
tack. — Posts on the Red River. — Early Traffic on the Red River. 

"And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears 
of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where 
only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more 
essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put 
together." — 'Jonathan Swift. 

The Post at Pembina. 

May 17, 1801, Alexander Henry selected the spot for building a 
fort at Pembina. The post was completed October 1, 1801, and there- 
after Henry's scattered forces made their headquarters at Pembina. 

The post was named "Fort Panbian," and was later called the 
"Peimbina House." It was built on the north side of the Panbian 
River — afterward changed to Pembina — between that and the Red 
River, 100 paces from each, on land afterwards entered by Joseph 
Rolette, and in 1870, James J. Hill, subsequently President of the 
Great Northern Railroad, purchased of Mr. Rolette the identical 
ground on which the establishment stood, embracing five acres, where 
he built a bonded warehouse for trade with the Indians and settle- 
ments in Manitoba. 

Norman W. Kittson, a later trader at Pembina, and identified 
with transportation and other interests of the Red River country 
and of Minnesota, was a relative of Alexander Henry. Henry's post 
consisted of a storehouse, 100x20 feet, built of logs. Later a stock- 
ade and other buildings, including store rooms, shops, warehouses 
and a stable for fifty horses, were added. 

The Hudson's Bay Company built the fall of 1801, a post on the 
east side of the Red River, near Peter Grant's old post, and the X. Y. 
Company built just below Henry on the Pembina River. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company built a post, also, on the Pembina River at the 
Grand Passage, which was destroyed by fire April 1, 1803. 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Origin of the Name. 

The name of Pembina, applied to the post and the mountains, 
previous to 1801 known as Hair Hills, is claimed by recognized 
authorities to be derived from the Chippewa words anepeminan sipi, 
a red berry known among the whites as the "high bush cranberry." 

The early efforts to create the "Territory of Pembina" were 
antagonized because it was alleged that the word was insignificant, 
and when in the debates in congress it was pronounced "Pembyny," 
by a usually well informed congressman, all efforts in that direction 
ceased. Early in 1882, the Bismarck Tribune, then edited by the 
author of these pages, used "North Dakota" in the date line of that 
paper, and from that time the friends of "North Dakota" were united 
in their efforts to secure it for the name of the proposed new state. 
Dakota had become noted for its great wheat fields, and it was de- 
sired, also, to retain whatever benefit might accrue from that, as the 
famous farms were in the northern part of the territory. 

The First Farming. 

John Tanner claims that the cultivation of Indian corn was in- 
troduced on the Red River by an Ottawa friend of his of the name 
of She-gaw-kee-sink, and it is known that Indian farming was carried 
on successfully for many years by the Arikaras, Mandans and Hidatsa, 
at the Mandan villages, prior to the advent of Alexander Henry. 
They raised corn, potatoes, squashes, etc., but to Henry belongs the 
credit of the first attempt to raise vegetables and corn in the upper 
Red River Valley. He was the first white farmer in North Dakota. 
May 17, 1801, he planted a few potatoes and garden seeds on the 
site of Peter Grant's old fort, and harvested Wz bushels of potatoes 
October 1. The other vegetables had been consumed by the horses. 

The following year on May 15, 1802, he began to sow his garden, 
and planted a bushel of potatoes, received from Portage La Prairie. 

May 7, 1803, he planted potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, onions, 
sowed cabbage and planted cabbage stalks for seed. Three days later 
he finished planting eight kegs of potatoes. The yield October 17th, 
amounted to 420 bushels of potatoes from 7 bushels planted, exclusive 
of those used, destroyed and stolen by the Indians, estimated at 200 
bushels; 300 large head of cabbage, 8 bushels of carrots, 16 bushels 
of onions, 10 bushels of turnips, some beets, parsnips, etc. One onion 
measured 22 inches in circumference at the thick end; a turnip with 
its leaves weighed 25 pounds, the leaves alone 15 pounds. The 
weight without the leaves was generally 10 to 12 pounds. 

April 28, 1804, he was working in his garden, and September 9th, 
gathered cucumbers and made a nine-gallon keg of pickles. October 
22nd the crop gathered was 1000 bushels of potatoes — the product of 
21 bushels — 40 bushels of turnips, 25 bushels of carrots, 20 bushels of 
beets, 20 bushels of parsnips, 10 bushels of cucumbers, 2 bushels of 
melons, 5 bushels of squashes, 10 bushels of Indian corn, 200 large 
head of cabbage, 300 small and savoy cabbage; all of these exclusive 
of what had been eaten and destroyed. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. £9 

Here is doubtless the first record of Indian corn grown in the 
Red River Valley. Henry claims that he furnished the Indians at 
Dead River, Manitoba, seed corn and seed potatoes in 1805. 

Poultry Raising and iVIanufactures. 

In 1807, Henry brought a cockerel and two hens from Fort Will- 
iam to Pembina. One hen died, and the other began to lay March 
29, 1808. May 8th, she hatched 11 chickens and seven more were 
added later in the season; giving him a flock of 18 chickens, the first 
domestic fowl raised in North Dakota. 

At this time there was a manufactory at Pembina, where Red 
River carts were made, and a cooper shop turning out kegs and 
half barrels. 

The First Child, Pierre Bonga. 

March 14, 1801, the first child, not of Indian blood, was born at" 
Pembina, to Pierre Bonga and his wife, both negroes. Pierre Bonga 
had been a slave of Captain Daniel Robertson of Mackinaw, brought 
home from the West Indies, and was in the first canoe of the Red 
River brigade of July, 1800. 

An amusing story of riding a buffalo is told of him at Pembina. 
A buffalo cow had fallen on the ice near the fort, and in her struggle 
to get up had become entangled in a rope, but finally gained her 
feet, when Pierre and Crow (an Indian) got on her back, but without 
paying any attention to them, she attacked the dogs, and was as 
nimble in jumping and kicking as she was before taking the load of 
nearly 400 pounds. 

In the fall of 1802, Joseph Duford of the X. Y. Company threatened 
to kill Bonga, and himself received a sound beating. Bonga left 
numerous descendants, one of whom was an interpreter at the Fort 
Snelling treaty of 1837. 

The First White Child. 

The first white child was born at Pembina December 29, 1807. 
Its father was John Scart of Grand Forks, and its mother was a 
native of the Orkney Islands, who dressed in men's clothes and 
for several years had been doing a man's work at Pembina. 

Managers, Employees and Trading Statistics. 
Jean Baptiste Demerals, interpreter for Henry's Red River 
brigade, had charge of the garden, horses and fishing, etc., at Fort 
Pembina the first season, and the winter of 1801-2, took at his station 
near where Morris, Manitoba, now stands, 130 beaver skins, 8 wolf, 
2 fox, 3 raccoon, 38 fisher, 2 otter and 5 mink. 

Buffalo, the Hunter. 
Buffalo, a member of the Henry expedition of 1800, in 1801, was 
chosen hunter for the post at Pembina. As recorded in the annals 
of the post he was one of the most demoralized in his domestic 
relations, offering, like Charlo, to sell his nine-year-old daughter to 
Henry for a dram of his "mixture" at Park River. In the spring of 
1803, he quarreled with his wife, and struck her with a club, cutting a 
gash in her head six inches long from the effects of which she was 



30 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

SO long recovering that she was believed to be dead, and a year later 

he repeated the brutality by stabbing his young wife in the arm; 

all of which was attributed to his frenzied condition while in his cups. 

Michael Langlois. 

Michael Langlois of the Red River brigade, after the trading post 
was established the fall of 1801, on the Pembina River, was sent to 
the Pembina Mountains, then known as Hair Hills, to establish a post 
at the foot of the steep, sandy banks, where the river first issues 
from the mountains, and the X. Y. Company sent four men there to 
build alongside of his establishment; also, aside from the two houses 
mentioned, there was another trading post in the Pembina Mountains, 
known as the De Lorme House, where Henry called on his rounds, 
visiting his several outlying posts that winter. These trips were 
made with dog sledges and snow shoes. 

The following winter of 1801-02, Michael Langlois took at the 
Pembina Mountains, 200 beaver skins, 24 black bear, 5 brown bear, 
16^0 wolf, 39 fox, 14 raccoon, 57 fisher, 5 otter and 15 mink. In 
S^eptember, 1802, he was ordered by Mr. Henry to Red Lake, but 
failing to make that point, spent the winter at Leech Lake, accom- 
panied by Joseph Duford. The winter of 1803-04, he passed at the 
Pembina Mountains post with Le Sieur Touissant and turned in 182 
beaver skins, 51 bear and 148 wolf. Maymiutch, Charlo's brother, 
an Indian who went up the river with the "brigade" while under the 
influence of liquor, shot at Michael Langlois December 21, 1803. The 
following season, 1804-05, Langlois was in charge of the same station 
with James Caldwell. The returns of catch are as follows: 16 
beaver skins, 37 bear, 251 wolf. 

Other employees at Fort Pembina in 1801, or about that period, 
who conducted the work of the post, were Jean Baptiste Le Due 
(possibly Laroque), Joachim Daisville, Andree La Grosser, Andree 
Beauchemin, Jean Baptiste Laroque, Jr., Etienne Roy, Francois Sint, 
Joseph Maceon, Charles Bellegarde, Joseph Hamel, Nicholas Pouliotte 
and Joseph Dubois — all of Henry's Red River brigade. 

John Cameron. 

John Cameron who had been at Park River the previous season, 
was sent by Mr. Henry September 1, 1801, to Grand Forks, to build 
a post there, and he was followed by the X. Y. Company; where- 
ever the one company went the other was sure to follow. Cameron 
took in at Grand Forks, the season of 1801-02, 410 beaver skins, 22 
black bear, 2 brown bear, 30 wolf, 20 fox, 20 raccoon, 23 fisher, 29 
otter and 6 mink. 

September 20, 1802, he was sent from Pembina for the same 
purpose, to Turtle River, and took in 337 beaver skins, 40 bear 
and 114 wolf. The winter of 1803-04, he passed at Park River with 
Joseph Ducharme and the post turned in 147 beaver skin, 25 bear 

and 14 wolf. 

Augustine Cadotte. 
Augustine Cadotte was sent September 20, 1802, to the Pembina 
Mountains, to trade with the Crees and Assiniboines and remained 
there through the winter, taking 30 beaver skins, 47 bear and 364 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 31 

wolf. April 1, 1803, he was sent to Grand Forks to rebuild the post 
there, erecting a building 100x20 feet in extent, the same size as 
the original post at Pembina. The X. Y. and the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany followed, and that spring the Hudson's Bay Company erected a 
new post on the north side of the Pembina River at Pembina. 

John Crebasse. 

John Crebasse with Mr. Henry at Fort Pembina, in the winter of 
1801-02, took in 629 beaver skins, 18 black bear, 4 brown bear, 58 
wolf, 16 fox, 39 raccoon, 67 fisher, 24 otter, 6 marten, 26 mink. At 
the same place he passed the following winter, 1802-03, with Mr. 
Henry, taking 550 beaver skins, 38 bear and 104 wolf. 

The winter of 1805-06, John Crebasse was in charge at Grand 
Forks, and Mr. Henry at Pembina. Crebasse turned in from the for- 
mer station 343 beaver skins, 24 bear, 310 wolf, 171 fox, 75 raccoon, 
59 fisher, 27 otter and other skins. 

Of course there were other products of the chase from all of 
these points each year. 

Joseph Ouford. 

Joseph Duford a member of the X. Y. Company, who threatened 
to kill Pierre Bonga, and was the companion of Michael Langlois 
at Leech Lake the winter of 1802-03, was with Henry Hesse in charge 
of the Salt River post in 1804-05, and it appears on the returns of 
Salt River for that winter, that they turned in 160 beaver skins, 24 
bear and 346 wolf. Duford was killed by a visiting Indian, Octobei 
30, 1805, and under this date the following particulars are given: 

A visiting Indian and his chief had accepted a quart of rum and 
were being entertained at the fort. In the course of the night they 
quarreled, made up, fought their battles with the Sioux over again, 
sang war songs, discussed the Sioux, boasted of their own exploits, 
sometimes maneuvering as in actual battle, with a pipe stem for a 
weapon, and finally the chief fell, exhausted and the other continued 
the performance alone, until he worked himself into a ^ frenzy and 
thinking he was really in a battle and the Sioux were upon him, 
grabbed his gun, called upon his imaginary comrades to follow him 
and fired — mortally wounding Joseph Duford. 

The next morning when sober, the Indian was in great distress, 
insisting that he intended no harm, that he knew that he was a bad 
Indian; that he had killed three of his owb children, but he had 
never hurt a white man before. 

According to the record — "he was forgiven." 
Etienne Charbonneau. 

Etienne Charbonneau went up the River with Henry's Red River 
brigade to Park River, and the winter of 1803-04 was with Henry at 
Fort Pembina, where they turned in 211 beaver skins, 29 bear and 
37 wolf. 

For the winter of 1804-05, the returns of the catch at Fort Pem- 
bina were 829 beaver skins, 36 bear and 102 wolf. 

There were 10 grizzly bear skins in the returns of that year 
from the three posts, viz.: Salt River. Pembina Mountains and 
Pembina post. 



32 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 

The Stain on the Record. 

"Oh! stay not to recount the tale — 

'Twas bloody — and 'tis past, 
The firmest cheek might well grow pale 

To hear it to the last. 
The God of heaven, who prospers us 

Could bid a nation g'ro'w. 
And shield us from the red man's curse 

Two hundred years ago!" 

— GRENVILLE ME'LLEN. 

From the 28th of August, 1801, to the close of the year 1804, 
the record of the life at Fort Pembina is a series of complaints, 
demands, quarrels and casualties, the revolting details of which in- 
volve the character of many brave Indians, who doubtless merit 
honorable mention, but who appear at best as "troublesome" and 
many of them as answerable for a long list of crimes, invariably 
with direct reference to an abnormal state of mind, attributed to 
over-indulgence on one side and criminal adulteration of the means 
of it on the other. 

The record of Alexander Henry, as made up by himself, during 
five years of the early history of the Red River Valley, is bad enough. 
Others were working on the same lines. In some of their journals 
the record is far more shameful than Henry's, and of his Dr. Coues 
says: 

"The seamy side of the fur trade Henry shows us with a steady 
hand that we can scarcely follow with unshaken nerves, is simply 
hell on earth; people with no soul above a beaver skin, fired by 
King Alcohol in the workshop of Mammon." 

Ingenious excuses were framed by the Indians for obtaining the 
stimulant which the white traders had encouraged them to use and 
taught them to prize above all things, and in the dealing out to them 
of the poison, there was often a nefarious liberality, let alone their 
questionable forms of trade, for which there can be no condemnation 
too severe. 

Henry in commenting on the degeneracy of the Indians, said: 
"The Indians totally neglect their ancient ceremonies, and to 
what can this degeneracy be ascribed but to their intercourse with 
us; particularly as they are so unfortunate as to have a continual 
succession of opposition parties to teach them roguery and destroy 
both mind and body with that pernicious article, rum! What a 
different set of people they would be, were there not a drop of liquor 
in the country! If a murder is committed among the Salteurs 
(Chippewa), it is always in a drinking match. We may truly say 
that liquor is the root of all evil in the Northwest, "Great bawling 
and lamentation went on, and I was troubled most of the night for 
liquor to wash away grief," continues Mr. Henry in his journal. 

The use of intoxicating liquor rouses the passions, among all 
races of men; it deadens the sensibilities, impairs and frequently de- 
stroys the memory. Love and virtue cannot long endure where 
alcohol holds sway; prosperity cannot abide in the home of the man 
who is addicted to its use, his business will fail, his home will be 
broken, and his parents, his wife and daughters may expect to go in 




Chief Gaul 
Rain-in-the-Face 



NOTED SIOUX 



Photos by D. F. Barry, Superior, Wis. 

Sitting Bull 
Bull Head 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA, 33 

sorrow to their graves. There is no evil known to man that can or 
does bring the distress to the human race that follows its unrestrained 
use; its baneful influence, frequently extending to the unborn. 

Perhaps it has been, and may be used to some advantage in 
medicine and mechanic arts, but there is absolutely no compensation 
that it has given or can give the world, for the ruin it has wrought 
in its use as a beverage. A noble race that peopled the plains and 
forests of North America have been nearly destroyed by its use 
and the white man's greed for gold, and countless thousands, aye, 
millions of white men have been unfitted for life's duties, not to 
speak of the murders and suicides, and of the miserable wrecks in 
the hospitals for the insane and in the penitentiaries and jails. There 
must be retribution for those who have brought this great evil to 
men. May God pity and save those addicted to its use who care 
to be saved. 

The flagstaff for Fort Pembina, a single oak stick, "75 feet 
without splicing," was erected November 28, 1801, and at the raising 
the men were given "two gallons of high wines, four fathoms of 
tobacco, and some flour and sugar, to make merry." But it was not 
alone the aborigines who exceeded the bounds of sobriety, for it is 
written, that on New Year's day the men of the X. Y. Company and 
the Hudson's Bay Company came over to Fort Pembina, and the 
manager treated the company assembled to "two gallons of alcohol, 
five fathoms of tobacco and some flour and sugar, the neighbors and 
everybody else of both sexes and all classes losing their senses, 
and according to the narrator 'becoming more troublesome than 
double their number of Indians.' " 

Good drinking water was scarce on the hunt and in the midst 
of the winter of 1801-02 (February 28th), Henry returned from hunt- 
ing almost famished, and declared that "a draught of water was the 
sweetest beverage he ever drank." 

Of the Indian when not degenerated by the use of intoxicants 
it may be said there is no selfishness in him. His anger and his 
appetite in those days were uncontrollable, but there is no human 
love stronger than his for home and kin, and he seldom forgot to 
recognize "discretion as the better part of valor," and for that he 
has been called cowardly. No matter what the Indian's prospect 
for success in battle might be, the moment that he realized that 
his women and children were in danger he would retire. Their 
protection was his first consideration. Aside from that his creed 
was a life for a life, a scalp for a scalp. If the Indians travelled 
a thousand miles, enduring privation and dangers that were appalling, 
it was for scalps to recompense for similiar losses. It was not the 
love of bloodshed, or for the wanton destruction of human life. It 
was for revenge, none the less sweet because indulged by the 
untutored tribesmen. 

North-West and X. Y. Consolidation. 

In 1805, Hugh McGillis, partner in the North-West Company, 
had charge of the Fond du Lac district, with trading posts at every 
available point on the south side of Lake Superior, across the coun- 



34 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

try to the Mississippi River, up that stream to its source, and down 
on the Red River. The company had extended its sphere of activity 
even to the very center of the Louisiana purchase; they were reach- 
ing out to the head waters of the Missouri River, and pushing their 
way on to the Columbia and to the Arctic seas. 

The headquarqters of Mr. McGillis were at Leech Lake, and he, 
also, had an important post at Cass Lake, Minnesota. 

Cuthbert Grant had charge of the post at Sandy Lake, near 
grounds covered now by Aitkin, Minnesota, and had a number of 
other posts in the surrounding country. 

Robert Dickson, was an independent Canadian trader, having 
his main post on the Mississippi River, near what is now St. Cloud 
and another at Cass Lake, in charge of George Anderson. 

At all these posts English goods were being sold without the 
payment of duties; most of the posts being fortified, and many of 
them flying the British flag, the "Second Union Jack," which, since 
1801, had embraced the cross of St. Patrick in addition to those of 
St. George and St. Andrew. Canadian traders assumed the right to 
make or break Indian chiefs, and were holding their friendship and 
confidence by the presentation of medals, and using intoxicating 
liquors to demoralize and debauch them. 

Alexander Henry was much concerned in February, 1806, when 
he heard of Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike's expedition, which 
was then at Leech Lake, understanding that it was proposed to force 
the traders to pay duties on the goods used by them in trade in 
United States territory. 

The population of the Red River country in 1805, is given by 
Henry as 75 white men, 40 women, mixed bloods, and 60 children, 
mixed blood. The women were the wives of the traders and their 
men, all Indian and mixed bloods, and the children were all mixed 
bloods, although returned as whites. 

The Indian population was given as 160 men, 190 women and 
250 children. 

First Family Names. 

The family names of nearly every mixed blood family, now or re- 
cently residing in the Turtle Mountains, may be found among the 
employees of the several fur companies operating on the Red River 
or in that region. Among those mentioned by Alexander Henry in 
connection with the fur trade in the Red River country, are the 
following: 

Francois Allaire, Michel Allaire, Michel Allary, Francois Amiot, 
Antoine Azure, Joseph Azure, Alexis Bercier, Joseph Bercier, Antoine 
Bercier, Joseph Boisseau, Francois Boucher, Louis Brozzeau, Augustin 
Cadotte, Michel Cadotte, Murdoch Cameron, Duncan Cameron, An- 
toine Dubois, Francois Dubois, Nicholas Ducharme, Pierre Ducharme, 
Pierre Falcon, Michel Fortier, Pierre Fortier, Jacques Germain, 
St. Joseph Germain, Antoine Gingras, Jean Baptiste Godin, Louis 
Gordon, Alphonso Goulet, Jacques Goulet, Jean Baptiste Goulet, 
Francois Hamel, Francois Henry, Francois Houle, Jerome Jerome, 
Francois Langie, Jacques Lavoilette, Jean Baptiste Lemay, Louis 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 35 

Lemay, Pierre Lemay, Duncan McGillis, Hugh McGillis, Alexander 
McKay, Alexis McKay, Ambrose Martineau, Hy Norbert, Alexis 
Plante, Joseph Plante, Augustin Poisier, Andrew Poitras, Duncan 
Pollock, Joseph Premaeu, John Roy Ross, Augustin Ross, Jean 
Baptiste Ross, Vincent Ross, John Sayers, Angus Shaw, Alex Wilkie. 

January 1, 1805, Mr. Henry learned of the consolidation of the 
North-West Company and X. Y. Company, and gave the following 
as his views of the existing conditions: 

"It certainly was high time for a change on this river. The 
country being almost destitute of beaver and other furs, and the In- 
dians increasing in number daily from Red Lake and the Fond du 
Lac country. The X. Y. had been lavish of their property, selling 
very cheap, and we, to keep the trade in our hands, had been obliged 
to follow their example. Thus by our obstinate proceedings we had 
spoiled the Indians. Every man who had killed a few skins was con- 
sidered a chief and treated accordingly; there was scarcely a common 
buck to be seen; all wore scarlet coats, had large kegs and flasks, 
and nothing was purchased by them but silver works, strouds and 
blankets. Either every other article was let go on debts and never 
paid for, or given gratis on request. This kind of commerce had 
ruined and corrupted the natives to such a degree that there was 
no bearing with their insolence. If they misbehaved at our houses 
and were checked for it, our neighbors were ready to approve their 
scoundrelly behavior, and encourage them to mischief, even offering 
them protection if they were in want of it. By this means the most 
notorious villians were sure of refuge and resource. Our servants 
of every grade were getting extravagant in their demands, indolent, 
disaffected toward their employers and lavish with the property com- 
mitted to their charge. I am confident that another year could hot 
have passed without bloodshed between ourselves and the Saulteurs." 
In May, following the consolidation of the two fur companies, 
the Indians were encamped about the fort drinking, when one Indian 
stabbed another to death. The murdered man left five children and 
the scene at his burial was heartrending. In the carousals that 
followed a son of Net-no-kwa the foster mother of John Tanner the 
"White Captive," had his face disfigured for life, and another In- 
dian who came to his relief met the same fate. 

Henry Suffers From the Sioux. 

July 3, 1805, a large body of Sioux fell upon a small camp of 
Henry's Indians on the Tongue River, and killed or carried off as 
prisoners, 14 persons — men, women and children. Henry's father- 
in-law was the first one killed. His mother-in-law reached the woods 
in safety, but finding that one of the younger children had been left 
by the young woman in whose charge it was placed, she kissed the 
older children and went back for that one. She recovered the child, 
but was stricken down by the Sioux. Springing to her feet she drew 
a knife and plunged it into the neck of her antagonist, but others 
coming up, she was dispatched. 

All of the bodies of the dead were shot full of arrows. The 



36 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 

skull of Henry's father-in-law was cut, and carried away for a drink- 
ing cup, and indignities perpetrated on other bodies too horrible 
to describe. 

Trial of the New Policy. 

From the time of the consolidation of the companies there was 
a change in policy — a change in the grade and strength of the 
liquors sold to the Indians, and in the profits, which were greater, 
and from that time on there were no presents, and no liquor given 
to induce trade, but an amicable arrangement was made between the 
North-West and Hudson's Bay companies whereby strife, for a while, 
ceased, and the Indians were obliged to pay for whatever they re- 
ceived. But this happy condition did not continue to exist, as we 
shall see later. It was bad enough before. 

October 6, 1805, the Hudson's Bay Company built their new post 
at Pembina, and Alexander Henry, in carrying out the new policy, 
immediately made a division of the Indians, giving the Hudson's Bay 
Company, Tabishaw and other troublesome Indians among their por- 
tion, and thereupon refused to make the usual distribution of liquors; 
being determined that they should not taste a drop while they laid 
around the fort idle, but gave them credit for other necessary 
articles. Some flattered, some threatened, and others caressed him — 
still others declared that they would not hunt, but to no purpose, 
they were still refused. "With no X. Y. to spoil and support them in 
idleness, we obliged them to pay their debts," wrote Mr. Henry, 
"and not a drop was given them at the fort." 

Change in Managers. 

Mr. Henry was succeeded for a short time at Fort Pembina by 
Mr. Charles McKenzie, and then by Mr. John Wills. John Tanner 
in his "narrative" says, relative to his experience with the latter, 
that Mr. Wills called the Indians together, and giving them a ten- 
gallon keg of rum and some tobacco, told them that thereafter he 
would not credit them to the value of a needle, but would give 
them whatever was necessary for their convenience and comfort in 
exchange for whatever they had to sell. He not only refused them 
credit, but in many instances abused the Indians for asking it. Tanner 
was ordered away from the fort because he asked for the accomoda- 
tion which had hitherto been extended him, and in his distress for the 
necessaries of life, he went to the Hudson's Bay Company's agent, 
and was given the credit desired. 

When he brought in his peltries, Mr. Wills forcibly took posses- 
sion of them, and threatened to kill him when he demanded them, 
and did draw a pistol on him when he came to recover them and 
turn them over to the Hudson's Bay Company, pursuant to his 
agreement. 

Outlying Posts Withdrawn. 

The winter of 1805-06, the opposition having dropped out, there 
was no longer reason to keep up the outlying posts. Henry's return 
of the catch at Fort Pembina that season embraced 776 beaver 
skins, 74 bear, 533 wolf, 276 fox, 63 raccoon, 140 fisher, 102 otter, 
271 marten and 141 mink. 




Sioux Warrior 



Photos by D, F. Barry, Superior. Wis. 



NOTED SIOUX 



Crow King 
John Grass 
Running Antelope 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 37 

One year later the Hudson's Bay Company re-established its 
trading house at Pembina, in charge of Hugh Heney, who arrived 
at the post September 12, 1807, with two boats from Hudson Bay for 
the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Heney extended the usual credits 
to worthy Indians, notwithstanding the previous understanding with 
Alexander Henry. The population of the Red River country in 1807, 
not in the employ of the fur companies numbered 45, known as 
"freemen." 

On September 12, 1807, the post at Grand Forks was re-established 
by Alexander Henry's sending his cousin, William Henry and seven 
men there from Port Pembina. A week later on September 19tli, 
Hugh Heney sent a boat and a skiff and six men to Grand Forks to 
establish a Hudson's Bay Company post at that point. 
Anarchy and Hostility. 

The spring of 1808, opened at Fort Pembina upon scenes brutal 
and lawless in the extreme, but so familiar had these crimes become 
to Alexander Henry, that in his journal he briefly alludes to the 
murder of an Indian by his wife, and to a disturbance on that day, 
when the Indians in camp at the fort used some kegs of high wines 
that had been given them by William Henry, then in charge of 
the fort, and as a parting treat a ten-gallon keg of alcohol, gratis. 

Chief Porcupine's son was murdered, receiving 15 stabs from 
a relative, and Mr. Henry observes: "Murders among these people 
are so frequent that we pay little attention to them. The only excuse 
is that they were drunk." 

A Night Attack. 

The fort at Pembina was attacked by a party of 200 Sioux at 
midnight of July 22, 1808. There were then 22 men bearing arms, 
50 women and many children encamped in the vicinity. 

Alexander Henry defended the fort with the men encamped out- 
side, 9 men inside, and a mortar loaded with one pound of powder 
and 30 balls, which had recently been added to the equipment. 

At the hour of attack the Indians had been drinking heavily, 
and were generally asleep in their tents. Their arms were in the 
fort and the gates were closed, but when roused they clambered over 
the stockade and secured their arms, hurrying the women and chil- 
dren into the fort. 

The piece when in action was aimed in the direction where the 
Sioux could be plainly heard addressing their men, and no such 
noise as its roar had ever been heard on the Red River before. The 
balls clattered through the tree tops and some took effect, for the 
lamentations of the Sioux could be distinctly heard for their fallen 
comrades. 

For a few moments only the firing continued and the Sioux were 
next heard at some distance, then farther off, farther and farther. 
About sunrise they could be dimly discerned filing away to the 
southv/ard. 

Their pursuers found the stain of blood where the Sioux were 
first heard, and evidence of a hasty retreat. On the spot where 
they put on their war bonnets and adjusted their accoutrements. 



38 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

making ready for the assault, upwards of 100 old shoes were found; 
also some scalps, remnants of leather and buffalo robes, saddle cloths, 
pieces of old saddles, paunches and bladders of water for their journey 
— and a lone grave on the prairie where one of their dead had been 
left. The loss at the fort was one dog killed by the Sioux shots. 

The furs sent from the Red River posts in 1808, included 696 
beaver skins, 161 black bear, 956 marten, 196 mink, 168 otter, 118 
fisher, 46 raccoon. There were also shipped 3,159 pounds of maple 
sugar. The provisions consumed at Fort Pembina by the party of 
that year, consisted, among other things, of 147 buffalo (63,000 pounds) 
6 deer, 4 bears, 775 sturgeon (weighing from 50 to 150 pounds each), 
1,150 other fish, 140 pounds of pounded meat and 325 bushels of 
potatoes. 

Alexander Henry was ordered August 3, 1808, to the Saskatchewan, 
to take charge of that disti-fct (where he lived three years) and in a 
few days bade farewell to the Red River, after sixteen winters 
among the Chippewa. 

He was drowned in the Columbia River near St. George, May 
22, 1814, on the way in a small boat from St. George to board a 
vessel called the "Isaac Tod," which lay at anchor outside the bar at 
the mouth of the river. 

The post at Pembina, captured by the Hudson's Bay Company, 
March 30, 1816, was maintained until 1823. Charles Hesse and Alex- 
ander Fraser were there when it was taken over by the Hudson'8 
Bay Company. 

Charles Hesse. 

Charles Hesse was a clerk in the employ of the North-West 
Company at Grand Portage in 1779, and is mentioned in connection 
with Red River matters by Henry, October 16, 1801, when he and 
his young wife arrived at Red Lake. On February 22, 1804, they 
went to Red Lake for maple sugar. September 18th, Hesse left 
Pembina with eight men to re-establish the post at Park River, which 
was accomplished the first of October. At the same time Augustin 
Cadotte re-opened trade at Salt River, to oppose the X. Y. Company. 

In one of the battles between the Sioux and Chippewa, Hesse's 
property was destroyed and all his family were killed, except a 
daughter, who was taken prisoner by the Sioux. Hesse invaded the 
camp alone in the hope of effecting her rescue, and the Sioux had 
such great admiration for his bravery that they gave him an oppor- 
tunity to redeem her. He succeeded in raising a considerable sum 
for that purpose from his fellow traders, but his daughter r fused 
go with her white father, preferring her dusky Sioux warrior who 
had treated her kindly. 

Early Traffic on the Red River. 

There was traffic of considerable importance on the Red River 
in these early days. Some of the ladings by the North-West Company 
from Pembina in 1808, bound for the mouth of the Assiniboine and 
Mouse River were as follows: 

A long boat — Angus McDonald, Charles Laroque, Pierre Martin, 
Jean Baptiste Lambert, 282 bags of pemmican; 1 bag potatoes, 42 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 39 

kegs of grease; 2 kegs of gum, 224 pieces; 2 pair of cart wheels, 
1 leather tent; 1 oilcloth tent; 1 cow (buffalo, slaughtered), bark 
and wattap (for repairing canoe). 

A boat — Joseph Lambert, Pierre Vandle, Antoine Lapointe; 2 
kegs of gum; 5 kegs of grease; 107 pieces; 1 bag potatoes; 1 pair 
cart wheels; 1 leather tent; 1 oilcloth tent; 1 cow. 

A Lake Winnipeg Canoe — Houle (maybe Francois) Charbonneau, 
Fleury, Suprennant; 21 bags of pemmican; 1 keg of potatoes; 3 kegs 
of grease, 24 pieces; 1 buffalo. 

A Canoe — Andree Beauchemin, Joseph Bourree, 20 packs, W. W. 
2; 13 bags of pemmican; 1 bag of potatoes; 3 kegs of grease; 36 
pieces; 1 buffalo. 

A Canoe — Angus Briesbois, Jean Baptiste Laroque, Jean Baptiste 
Demerais; 20 packs, W. W. 2; 9 taureaux; 3 kegs of grease; 2 bags 
of potatoes; 32 packs and McD.'s baggage; 2 bales of meat; 1 buffalo. 

A Canoe — Louis Demerais, Joseph Plante, Cyrill Paradis, Michael 
Damphouse; 10 packs, W. W. 2; 2 kegs of grease; 2 bags of potatoes; 
12 pieces and Henry's baggage; 2 buffalo and 4 bales of meat. 

L. L. Canoe — Charles Bottineau, Jervis (Gervais), Assiniboine; 
22 kegs of grease; 1 bag of potatoes; 10 bags of potatoes; 32 pieces; 
1 buffalo. 

S. Canoe — Antoine Larocque, Bonhomme Mentour; 10 kegs of 
grease; 1 bag of potatoes; 1 cow. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE IjOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

Events Leading Up to the Purchase. — Discovery and Acquisition of 
Lewis and Clark. — The June Rise in the Missouri River. — The 
Arikara Villages. — Great Herds of Buffalo, Elk and Other Game. — 
Mandan Villages. — Fort Mandan. — The Winter of 1804-'05 in North 
Dakota. — The Beautiful Northern Lights. — Visiting Traders. — 
Sacajawea, the Bird-Woman. — The Missouri Fur Company. — The 
Return of the Mandan Chief. 

"Though watery deserts hold apart 

The worlds of east and west, 
Still beats the self-same human heart 

In each proud nation's 'breast." 

— OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 

Discovery and Acquisition. 

The Mississippi River was discovered by Fernando de Soto, a 
native of Spain who in 1519, accompanied the governor of Darien 
(now Panama) to America, leaving his service in 1528, to explore the 
coast of Gautemala and Yucatan in search of a passage between the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. After explorations and military service 
under Pizarro in Peru, early in April, 1538, he undertook the conquest 
of Florida, then a vast region under the Emperor Charles V of Spain, 
sailing with a large expedition, and arriving at Tampa Bay, then 
called Espiritu Santo, May 25, 1539. Seeking gold he explored the 
rivers of Florida, contending with Indians and pestilential fever, and 
marched to the northwest and reaching the Mississippi River in the 
spring of 1541, he marched southwest and northwest in his discoveries, 
and to the White River, his western limit, then proceeding south in 
March and April, 1542, along the Washita to, and following, the 
banks of the Mississippi, during May or June, he contracted the fever 
and died at the age of forty-six. His body wrapped in a mantle was 
buried beneath the waters of the Mississippi in the middle of the 
stream. In the spring of 1543, his followers moved south and dis- 
persed in Mexico. 

In the seventeenth century, Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, 
emigrant from France to Canada in 1666, and founder of La Chine, 
in 1669, was leader of an exploring expedition to the head of Lake 
Ontario and subsequently to the Ohio River and down that river to 
the site of the present city of Louisville. 

In the autumn of 1674, he went to France, and as the result 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 41 

obtained a grant of Fort Frontenac and the settlement May 13, 1675. 
In 1678, having established in Canada a centre for the fur trade of 
French and Indian settlers in opposition to another organization, he 
obtained permission from the French governrcent to carry on western 
explorations for five years, to establish posts and have exclusive con- 
trol of the trade in buffalo skins, exception being made to trade with 
the Ottawas who disposed of their furs in Montreal. 

In this voyage of discovery, with a company of about thirty men, 
he sailed for La Rochelle, July 14th, and having established a post, 
and near the mouth of the Niagara River, built a boat of 55 tons, 
called the "Griffon," in August, 1679, set out on his expedition, pass- 
ing through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan to Green Bay, 
thence in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph's River, where he 
established a trading post called Fort Miami, then ascending the St. 
Joseph's, he crossed to the Kankakee and sailed down until he 
reached a village of the Illinois, with whom he treated and in January, 

1680, having partly built a post near the present site of Peoria, 
called Fort Crevecoeur, he retraced his steps to Canada from the 
mouth of the St. Joseph's, striking across Michigan, made his way 
overland to Lake Erie, and then to his post at Niagara. There he 
assembled another party and set out again for Fort Crevecoeur with 
supplies, but finding the fort abandoned he explored the Illinois River 
to its mouth, and returned for recruits and supplies. December 21, 

1681, he started with a party from Fort Miami, ascended the Chicago 
River, crossed to the Illinois and descended to the Mississippi, and 
camping with the Indians kept on until the river divided, exploring 
each channel to the Gulf of Mexico, and on April 9, 1682, erected a 
column at the mouth of the Mississippi and ran up the French flag, 
taking formal possession of the country through which the river 
flowed. The chanting of the Te Deum, the Exaudiat and the Domine 
Salvum fac Regem, was included in the exercises, which closed 
with the firing of a salute and cries of "Vive le Roi." 

Possession was proclaimed in the following words as translated 
for Sparks' Life of La Salle: 

In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious 
prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and 
of Navarre, fourteenth of that name, this ninth day of April, one 
thousand six hundred and eighty-two, I, in virtue of the commission 
of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by 
all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take, in the name 
of His Majesty and of his successors to the crown, possession of this 
country of Louisiana, the seas harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, 
and all the nations, people, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, 
minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers, comprised in the extent of said 
Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis on the eastern 
side, otherwise called Ohio, Aligin, Sipore or Chukagona, and this with 
the consent of the Chaonanons, Chickachas and other people dwelling 
therein, with w^hom we have made alliance, as also along the river 
Colbert, or Mississippi and rivers which discharge themselves therein, 
from its source, beyond the country of the Kious or Nadoucessions. 
and this with their consent, and with the consent of the Motantes, 
Illinois, Mesiganeas, Natches, Koreas, which are the most considerable 
nations dwelling therein, with whom also we have made alliance, either 
by ourselves or by others in our behalf, as far as its mouth by the 
sea or Gulf of Mexico, about the twenty-seventh degree of the ele- 
vation of the North Pole and also to the mouth of the river of Palms; 
upon the assurance which we have received from all these nations 
that we are the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the 
said river Colbert; hereby protesting against all who may in future 



42 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

undertake to invade any or all of these countries, people or lands, 
above described, to the prejudice of the rights of His Majesty, acquired 
by the consent of the nations therein named. Of which, and all that- 
can be needed, I hereby take to witness those who hear me and de- 
mand an act of the notary as required by law. 

Spain was then in possession of the Floridas and of the country 
west of Louisiana, which territory embraced all of the country lyin^r 
between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, drained by the 
streams entering the Gulf of Mexico, and their tributaries. It em- 
braced West Virginia, part of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and 
Georgia on the east, and parts of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado on 
the west, and all of the present states of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, Oklahonia, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota and parts 
of North Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. 

On La Salle's way back to Canada, he laid the foundations of 
Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, and in November, 1683, reached Quebec. 
He then proceeded to France and proposed the settlement of the 
Mississippi region and the conquest of the mining country of Mexico 
then held by Spain, and April 14, 1684, he was appointed commandant 
of all the country from Fort St. Louis to the mouth of the Mississippi. 
He then, on August 1st, headed an expedition of four ships with 280 
colonists to go by sea to the Gulf of Mexico, stopping at Santo 
Domingo, but they passed the mouth of the Mississippi, early in 
January, 1685, and landed at the entrance of Matagorda Bay, where 
be built a fort, called St. Louis, and made an attempt at settlement, 
but it was savagely attacked by the Indians and Spanish, who claimed 
the country, and it proved a failure. January 7, 1687, he undertook 
to make his way back to the Illinois, and on March 19th, was shot 
and killed in a revolt of his men. 

Limits and Transfer. 

The line defining the drainage basin of the Mississippi River on 
the west constituted the limits of "Louisiana" as proclaimed by La 
Salle, and was adopted as the "Louisiana Purchase." The River Palms 
which was the eastern limit of Louisiana, emptied into Palm Sound, 
now called Sarasota Bay, its mouth being opposite the southern ex- 
tremity of Palm Island, now called Sarasota Key. 

The first transfer relative to the territory of Louisiana was a 
grant of commercial rights as far north as the Illinois River for a 
period of ten years by Louis XIV to Antoine de Crozat, September 
14, 1712, subsequently transferred to the Mississippi Company, and 
the entire region known under the name of Louisiana together with 
New Orleans and the island on which that city stands was ceded 
to Spain by treaty of November 3, 1762. Then representatives of 
France, Spain, Great Britain and Portugal met at Paris, February 
10, 1763, to define the boundaries of their respective possessions in 
North America, and France ceded to Great Britain the territory east 
of the Mississippi and north of latitude 31°, and the Mississippi be- 
came the boundary between Louisiana and the British colonies. The 
Red River and its tributaries including parts of North Dakota and 
Minnesota and the Canadas became the undisputed property of Great 
Britain. On April 21, 1764, Spain ceded to Great Britain all of her 
territory east of the Mississippi River and south of latitude 31°. 



EARLT HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 43 

September 3, 1783, in the settlement of boundaries at the close 
of the Revolutionary War, the United States received from Great 
Britain all that part of the original Louisiana ceded to the latter 
by France in 1763, viz., the territory of Louisiana, east of the 
Mississippi River and north of latitude 31°, and Great Britain ceded 
back to Spain the territory south of latitude 31° and east of the 
Mississippi River, which the former had received by the treaty of 
1763, effectually closing the Mississippi to the United States. Then 
came the retrocession by Spain of the colony or province of Louisiana 
to France in 1800. 

October 1, 1800, by the "Treaty of San Ildefonso," Spain re- 
troceded to France the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same 
extent it had when France originally possessed it, south of latitude 
31° and east of the Mississippi River. This was a secret treaty and 
Spanish officers still held possession. 

April 30, 1803, for the sum of $15,000,000, the Republic of France 
ceded to the United States the territory of Louisiana with the same 
extent that it had in the hands of Spain, and when France possessed 
it, and the United States accepted the territory between the Mississippi 
Rivers. The terms were arranged on the part of the United States 
by James Monroe, who had been a major in the Revolutionary War, 
afterwards secretary of war in Madison's cabinet during the war of 
1812, and fifth president of the United States. He was sent to France 
by President Jefferson, of whom George F. Hoar, senator from Mass- 
achusetts said: "When we recall Jefferson we recall him with the 
Declaration of Independence in one hand and the treaty for the 
annexation of the Louisiana territory in the other." 

The region comprehended in this purchase included all the coun- 
try west of the Mississippi not occupied by Spain, as far north as 
British territory, and comprised the whole or part of the present states 
of Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, 
Washington and Wyoming. 

The American flag was first raised in New Orleans, December 
20, 1803. By act of congress March 26, 1804, the territory was divided 
into two governments, that of "Orleans," including the present state 
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and a portion east of the river, 
and a section called "Louisiana," comprising all the country north 
and west of that river. April 8, 1812, the Territory of Orleans was 
admitted into the union under the title of the State of Louisiana, and 
on the 14th of the same month the remainder of the region east of 
the Mississippi now under the jurisdiction of the state was added. 
The last conflict of arms between Great Britain and the United States, 
closing the war of 1812, was a great battle of which General Andrew 
Jackson was the commanding officer, fought at New Orleans, January 
8, 1815, now a legal holiday in Louisiana. The British were defeated. 

Western Exploration. 
In 1776, John Ledyard of Connecticut, accompanied Captain James 
Cook on his third voyage around the world, in the hope of reaching 



44 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

the Pacific coast for the purpose of exploration. Captain Cook was 
murdered by the natives of the Sandwich (now the Hawaiian) Islands, 
and his expedition returned to England, but persisting in his efforts 
to explore the Pacific coast, armed with passports from the Russian 
government, procured through Thomas Jefferson, then U. S. Minister 
to France, Ledyard, in 1786, left St. Petersburg, intending to go by 
land to Kamschatka, cross on one of the Russian vessels to Nootka 
Sound, enter the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate through to 
the United States; departing on his journey with full assurance of 
protection while passing through Russian territory. Two hundred 
miles from Kamschatka, he went into winter quarters, and while pre- 
paring for his journey the next spring, he was arrested February 24, 

1788, by an officer of the Russian government, and, forbidden to pro- 
ceed on his explorations, was conveyed by day and night in a close 
carriage direct to Poland, where he was released and given to under- 
stand that if again found in Russian territory, he would be hanged. 
Broken in health and spirits, he died in Cairo, Egypt, January 17, 

1789, at the age of thirty-eight. Many extracts from his letters to 
Jefferson have been published. 

In 1792, Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state in the cabinet 
of George Washington, president of the United States, proposed to 
the American Philosophical Society a subscription to engage some 
competent person to explore Louisiana, by ascending the Missouri 
River, crossing the mountains and descending to the Pacific coast, 
as Lewis and Clark finally did. 

Captain Meriwether Lewis of the First United States Infantry, 
then stationed at Charlottesville, Virginia, on recruiting service 
solicited his selection for this service. He was to be accompanied 
by a single person only, and Andre Michaux, a distinguished French 
botanist, received the appointment. They went as far as Kentucky, 
when the French minister recalled Michaux, on the plea that his serv- 
ices were required elsewhere by his government in botanical re- 
search. Thus a second attempt to explore Louisiana failed. 
The United States in the Purchase of Louisiana. 

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated president of the 
United States. Spain had ceded Louisiana back to France and 
Napoleon Bonaparte v.as preparing to defend it against the whole 
world, but the war clouds of Europe were threatening. Spain had 
denied to the United States rights previously enjoyed in Louisiana 
and there was dissatisfaction with France through her attitude in 
the Floridas. The Mississippi was practically closed to the United 
States. A proposition had been submitted to the United States con- 
gress, to appropriate $5,000,000, and send an army of 50,000 men to 
seize the mouth of the Mississippi River. Robert R. Livingstone, 
U. S. Minister to France, was in Paris, endeavoring to arrange the 
matter amicably with the French. He was joined by James Monroe, 
of Virginia, commissioned to assist in the work, in whose hands the 
sum of $2,000,000 was placed to secure the cession of New Orleans 
and the Floridas. While these negotiations were pending with no 
apparent likelihood of success. President Jefferson had proposed to 



i 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 45 

congress that an expedition be sent to trace the Missouri River to 
its source, crossing the highlands, and following the best water com- 
munication to the Pacific ocean 

Congress had made this appropriation, and Captain Lewis, who 
was then President Jefferson's private secretary, had been chosen to 
carry the plan into effect. Suddenly Napoleon's policy changed and 
he demanded the United States take not only New Orleans and 
the Floridas, but the whole of Louisiana, and the price finally agreed 
upon was eighty million francs (about $15,000,000) the French com- 
missioners insisting, however, that the compact must be signed and 
scaled without delay. The envoys assumed the responsibility and 
completed the treaty, which was ratified by a vote of twenty-four to 
seven in the United States senate, October 20, 1903. The purchase 
price included twenty million francs for the payment of the debts 
of the Louisiana Province which the United States assumed. The 
total expense of the purchase up to June 20, 1880, was $27,267,621. 
The population of the province at the time of the purchase did not 
exceed ninety thousand. 

With the conclusion of the treaty. Napoleon, who realized that 
he must lose this vast possession, was happy in the thought that it 
would not fall to England, and that he was free to attack that 
nationality in another direction. 

Greatness had been "thrust upon" our country. Jefferson was 
perplexed, for he did not believe that the constitution warranted 
this transaction. The opposition stormed and ridiculed. The east 
was bitter in its opposition, but those who were pushing their way 
westward, knew there was no longer danger of attack upon our coun- 
try from the west. The south rejoiced. 

The Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

The instructions to Captain Lewis were signed June 20, 1803. 
It was not then known that Louisiana had been ceded to the United 
States, though such treaty was signed on the 30th of April, for the 
information did not reach this country until about the first of July. 
There were no ocean liners in those days, no steamships, no cables 
to transmit the news flashed across an ocean or a continent in a 
moment; therefore Captain Lewis bore the passports of both the 
French and English ministers, the latter for use on the western part 
of their trip. 

Captain Lewis had been intimate with the Indians; he was familiar 
with their habits and customs, their hopes and fears, and the tender 
spots in their hearts, and Jefferson knew that nothing but the im- 
possible would divert him from his purpose. He could confide in 
his capacity and courage, for he had known him from boyhood, and 
for two years had employed him as his private secretary. He caused 
him to take special instruction on scientific subjects and to make 
other needful preparation for his work. His instructions re- 
quired him to study the soil and climate, the topography, the in- 
habitants, etc., and urged upon him the importance of extending to the 
Indians the most friendly treatment. 



46 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

July 5, 1803, Captain Lewis left Washington, proceeding to Pitts- 
burgh, and reaching St. Louis in December of the same year, spent 
the winter in further preparation for work, at the mouth of Wood 
River on the east side of the Mississippi River, outside of the juris- 
diction of the Spanish officers. 

William Clark, a younger brother of General George Rogers Clark, 
was associated with Captain Lewis. He had been in the regular army, 
had resigned on account of ill health, and had served as a captain of 
militia. His rank on the expedition was second lieutenant of artillery 
until January 31, 1806, when he was promoted first lieutenant. He 
was promised, however, before undertaking the expedition the rank 
of captain of engineers, and was to have equal rank and authority 
v/ith Captain Lewis. He was so recognized by Captain Lewis. His 
official signature was captain of engineers. 

In addition to Captain Lewis and Captain Clark, the party con- 
sisted of fourteen picked men from the United States army — born 
and bred among the dangers and difficulties incident to frontier life, 
nine young men from Kentucy, two French watermen, an interpreter, 
a hunter and the colored servant of Captain Clark, named "York," 
also, a corporal and six men and nine watermen, who were to return 
when they reached the Mandan nation. 

Their means of transportation was a keel boat fifty-five feet long 
drawing three feet of water. It carried one large square sail and 
twenty-two oars, and had a deck of ten feet in the bow and stern, 
affording cabin and forecastle. Midships it was fitted with lockers, 
which might be raised for breastworks in case of need. There were, 
also, two open boats, one of six and the other of seven oars. 

After spending the winter at Wood River, they broke camp May 
14, 1804, at 4 p. m. and made four miles that: evening, the next day 
making ten miles, and reached St. Charles the third day. St. Charles 
then had about 450 inhabitants, relying principally for subsistence 
upon hunting and trade with the Indians. 

The June Rise in the Missouri. 
On the 23rd they found a small American settlement at Goodman 
Creek, and in a few days evidently encountered the "June rise" in 
the Missouri River, for they speak of the cut banks of the river 
falling so rapidly as to force them to change their course instantly 
to the other side. The sand bars were shifting continuously, and the 
current was so strong, that it was scarcely possible to make any 
headway. Some days by the aid of the sail, even, it was impossible 
to make more than four miles. 

The current of the river at the time of the June rise is about seven 
miles an hour. The river runs nearly bank full from the melting; 
snows in the mountains, and the heavy rains of that season, and 
wherever the current strikes the shore it quickly cuts away the 
banks, which tumble in; several rods of the bank often disappearing 
in one day. The water is extremely muddy, but when settled is con- 
sidered perfectly pure and healthful, and is clear above the mouth 
of the Yellowstone River, where that stream joins the Missouri. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 47 

The Arikara Villages. 

Lewis and Clark arrived at the three Arikara villages about three 
miles above the mouth of the Grand River, October 8, 1804. The 
villages extended up the river about four miles, and numbered about 
2,600 men. The first composed of about 60 lodges, was on an island 
three miles in length, covered with fields of corn, beans, potatoes and 
squashes. The principal chiefs of the first village were Kakawissassa 
or Lighting Crow, Pocasse or Hay and Piaheto or Eagle's Feather. 

The chief of the second village was Lassel and the chief of 
the third village, Ar-ke-tar-na-shar, who accompanied the expedition 
to the Mandan villages for the purpose of negotiating a peace treaty 
between the Arikaras and Mandans, who were then at war. 

Lewis and Clark met the Indians in council at their respective 
villages, and after stating the object of their visit, urged the im- 
portance of maintaining peace with the Mandans and Hidatsas, espe- 
cially in view of the aggressive disposition of the Sioux. In token 
of their appreciation of the friendly advice given them, the Indians 
supplied them liberally from their stoi'e of corn and beans. They 
also gave them a quantity of large, rich beans, collected by the 
gophers, ("prairie mice" as written in their journal), and secured from 
their burrows by the squaws. In return they gave the Indians a steel 
corn mill and other appropriate presents. 

Several Frenchmen were living at the Arikara villages; among 
them Joseph Gravelines and Anthony Tabeau, traders, were active in 
bringing the Indians together for a conference on October 10th. An- 
other meeting was held on the 11th at the Upper Arikara village, 
and another on the 12th. On the 14th they passed the forty-sixth 
parallel. 

Gravelines accompanied one of the chiefs to the Mandan villages 
in connection with the proposed peace negotiations, and a peace 
treaty was finally arranged between the Arikaras, Mandans and 
Hidatsas, now known as the Berthold Indians, which has been main- 
tained between these tribes for more than one hundred years. 

Sergeant Patrick Gass, who accompanied the expedition, visited 
a large number of Indian lodges, and in his memoirs left a very in- 
teresting description of the Arikara lodge or dwelling house, as 
follows : 

"In a circle of a size suited to the dimensions of the intended 
lodge, they set up sixteen forked posts, five or six feet high, and lay 
poles from one fork to another. Against these poles they lean other 
poles, slanting from the ground and extending about four inches above 
the cross poles; these are to receive the ends of the upper poles 
that support the roof. They next set up four large forks fifteen feet 
high and about ten feet apart, in the middle of the area, and poles 
or beams between these. The roof poles are then laid on, extending 
from the lower poles across the beams, which rest on the middle forks 
of such a length as to leave a hole at the top for a chimney. The 
v?hole is then covered with willow branches, except the chimney and 
a hole below to pass through. On the willow branches they lay grass 
and lastly clay. At the hole below they build a pen about four feet 



48 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

wide and projecting ten feet from the hut, and hang a buffalo skin at 
the entrance of the hut for a door. This labor, like every other kind, 
is chiefly performed by the squaws." 

The ground on the inside of the lodge was excavated for about 
a foot and a half below the surface, and the earth from the ex- 
cavation was thrown up against the poles, forming an embankment 
which added to the warmth and served as a protection in case of 
attack. The lodges were large enough to admit the horses belonging 
to the family, separated by a partition from the living part. 

In approaching the Arikara villages the expedition had passed 
through a long strip of country occupied by the Sioux, who were 
threatening and defiant in their attitude. Captain Lewis in his 
journal, thus writes of them: 

"Relying on a regular supply of merchandise through the channel 
of the St. Peters (Minnesota) River, they viewed with contempt the 
merchants of the Missouri, whom they never fail to plunder when in 
their power. Persuasion or advice with them is viewed as supplica- 
tion, and only tends to inspire them with contempt for those who 
offer either. The tameness with which the merchants of the Missouri 
have hitherto submitted to their rapacity, has tended not a little to 
inspire them with contempt for the white persons who visit them 
through that channel. A prevalent idea among them, and one that 
they make the rule of their conduct, is that the more illy they treat 
the traders, the greater quantity of merchandise they will bring 
them, and that they will obtain the articles they wish on better 
terms; they have endeavored to inspire the Ricaras (Arikaras) with 
similar sentiments, but, happily without considerable effect." 

Yet the Sioux were in the possession of some good qualities. The 
late General Gouverneur K. Warren served among them as an officer 
of the United States army, and knew them well, and in his reports 
si»oke kindly of them. In 1855, he wrote: 

"I have always found the Dakotas exceedingly reasonable beings, 
with a very proper appreciation of their rights. What they yield to 
the whites they expect to be paid for, and I have never heard a 
prominent man of their nation express any opinion in regard to what 
was due them in which I did not concur. Many of them view the ex- 
tinction of their race as the inevitable result of the operation of 
present causes, and do so with all the feeling of despair with which 
we should contemplate the extinction of our nationality." 

The Sioux claimed a vast extent of country and within its limits 
were at all times ready to contend for what they regarded their 
rights. Among the characteristics of the Sioux was their fondness 
for intoxicating liquors, and they would make almost any sacrifice 
to obtain it, but of the Arikaras it was said by Lewis and ClaKk: 

"We were equally gratified at the discovery that the Ricarees 
made use of no spirituous liquors of any kind, the example of the 
traders who bring it to them, so far from tempting, having, in fact, 
disgusted them. Supposing it was as agreeable to them as to other 
Indians, we had offered them whiskey, but they refused it with the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 49 

sensible remark that they were surprised that the father should pre- 
sent to them a liquor which would make them fools." 

On another occasion they observed that no man could be their 
friend who tried to lead them into such follies. 

None of the Missouri River Indians were then addicted to the 
use of intoxicating liquors, excepting the Sioux, who obtained it from 
the British traders on the Minnesota River, and the Assiniboines 
who secured it from the British traders on the Assiniboine River. 

The attitude of the Arikaras was friendly, and in speaking of the 
Sioux who had closed the way to trade to them, forcing them to 
rely on the Sioux for arms and ammunition, their principal chief 
said the door to their country was now open and no man dare 
close it. 

There were some things, however, thv,/ believed to be essential 
to their happiness. They were poor, but they would give anything 
for red paint. They were tender-hearted and very proud. When one 
of the soldiers of the expedition was punished by whipping, an In- 
dian chief cried aloud in agony. He said his people sometimes 
exacted the penalty of death for misdemeanors, but never that of 
being whipped, not even from children. 

Great Herds of Buffalo. 

October 18th the party reached Cannonball River, and in their 
journal great herds of buffalo, elk, deer and goats (antelope) are 
noted. From one point they counted fifty-two distinct herds of 
buffalo and three of elk. The great plains surrounding the location 
of the future city of Bismarck were literally covered with buffalo, 
elk, antelope and other game. 

Arriving at Sibley Island on the 20th they made note of the 
deserted Mandan villages in the vicinity of Bismarck and Mandan, 
and the old fortified village about a mile from the site of the present 
capital of North Dakota. The beautiful plains and the presence of 
coal near the locality where Washburn is situated were specially 
attractive features. 

The Mandans informed Lewis and Clark that it was about forty 
years since they left their villages about Bismarck and Mandan, 
and moved up to the Knife River. 

Mandan Villages. 

October 27, 1804, they went into camp for the winter at a point 
a short distance below the mouth of Knife River, in latitude 47 de- 
grees, 21 minutes, and 47 seconds, and the computed distance from 
the mouth of the Missouri, 1600 miles. 

On the second day after their arrival, an extensive prairie fire 
raged in the vicinity of the Mandan villages, resulting in several 
serious accidents. One woman, caught by the fire with a half-white 
baby in her arms, dropped the child on the prairie, covered it 
with a green or uncured buffalo skin, and made good her own escape 
from the flames. The fire passed around the child, leaving it unin- 
jured. The Indians accepted this incident as proof that the whites 
were good medicine, and this to a large extent, accounted for their 
kindly disposition toward the expedition. 



50 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Octpber 29th, they had a council with the Indians, and gave 
appropriate presents to the chiefs of each village. 

The chiefs made or recognized that day by Lewis and Clark, were 
as follows : 

Of the first or lower Mandan village, situated on the present site 
of Deapolis, then known as Matootonha, first chief, Shahaka or Big 
White; second chief, Ka-goh-ha-mi or Little Raven; inferior chiefs 
were Ohheena or Big Man, a Cheyenne captive adopted by the 
Mandans, and She-ta-har-re-ra or Coal. 

Of the second village, called Roop-tar-hee, the only one situated 
on the north side of the Missouri River, they made Pose-cop-sa-he 
or Black Cat, the first chief of the village and the grand chief of the 
whole Mandan tribe. His second chief was Car-gar-no-mok-she, or 
Raven Man Chief; the inferior chiefs were Taw-nuh-e-o Bel-lar-sara 
and Ar-rat-tana-mock-she, wolf man chief. 

The third village in the immediate vicinity of the present site 
of Stanton, was called Mah-har-ha and of this Ta-tuck-co-pin-re-ha or 
white buffalo robe unfolded, was the first chief, and Min-nis-sur-ra-ree 
or neighboring horse, and Le-cong-gar-ti-bar or old woman at a dis- 
tance, were recognized as inferior chiefs. 

Half a mile from this village was a Minnetaree village called 
Me-te-har-tan. Of this Omp-se-ha-ra, or Black Moccasin was first 
chief, and Oh-harh, or Little Fox, second chief. 

The Ahnaways, called Souliers by the French, lived in this 
village. They merged with the Hidatsas about thirty years later, and 
have since been recognized as a part of that tribe. The Souliers 
numbered, at this time, about 50 men, the Hidatsa, 450, and the 
Mandans, 350. 

The fourth village was called Me-te-har-tan. The principal chief 
was Mar-noh-tah, or Big Thief; he was at war and was killed soon 
afterwards. 

The chiefs recommended were Mar-se-rus-se, or Tail of the Calu- 
met bird, Ea-pa-ne-pa, or two tailed calumet bird, and War-ke-ras-sa, 
the Red Shield. 

The fifth or Hidatsa village was on the north side of the Knife 
River, one and one-half miles above its mouth, near Causey. It was 
the home of Le Borgne, Mau-pah-pir-re-cos-sa-too, the dominating in- 
fluence in the Mandan villages, but he was absent at the time of the 
arrival of Lewis and Clark. The chiefs recommended at the council 
for recognition were Sha-hake-ho-pin-nee, or little wolf. Medicine, 
and Ar-rat-toe-no-mook-ge, man wolf chief who was at war. He was 
represented by Cal-tar-co-ta, or cherry on the bush, by whom the usual 
chief's presents were sent to Le Borgne. 

When David Thompson of the North-West Company visited the 
Mandan villages in 1796, he found in the five villages 318 houses and 
seven tents. There were then two villages on the north side of the 
Missouri River, united in one before the visit of Lewis and Clark. 
This village was about three miles from the other Mandan villages 
on the Knife River. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 51 

Fort Mandan. 
Lewis and Clark established at thieir camp a post which, was 
known at Fort Mandan, consisting of two rows of huts or sheds, 
forming an angle where they joined each other. Each row had four 
rooms, fourteen feet square and seven feet high, with plank ceiling, 
and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the rooms, thel 
highest part of which was eighteen feet above the ground. The 
body of the huts formed a wall of that height. Opposite the angle 
the place of the wall was supplied by picketing, and in the rear were 
two rooms for stores and provisions. The American flag was raised 
over Fort Mandan for the first time December 25, 1804, and this was 
probably the first time that the fiag floated in North Dakota. 

It was the flag adopted by the United States congress, June 14, 
1777, the original having been made by Mrs. Betsey Ross of Philadel- 
phia, at the suggestion of General George Washington, after a design 
had been drawn by him, and approved by Benjamin Franklin, intro- 
ducing the coat of arms of the Washington family, which had the five 
pointed stars and the red and white stripes. The Union then num- 
bered thirteen states and congress enacted that the flag should be 
composed of thirteen red and white stripes alternate and thirteen 
stars, white on a blue field. On April 4, 1818, it was provided that 
the number of stars should be increased to represent the states ad- 
mitted to the Union, and that the number of stripes should remain 
forever thirteen. 

Flags of various designs had been in use by the soldiers of the 
American colonies in the early days and revolutionary as well as 
more recent exploration periods, the "Bear Flag," for example, now 
being jealously guarded by the Pacific coast pioneers. 

Christmas Day and the following New Year's Day, 1805, were 
appropriately celebrated by the Lewis and Clark expedition at Fort 
Mandan. 

The Winter of 1804-'05. 
The winter of 1804-'05, was a cold one. The mercury sometimes 
dropped as low as 47 degrees below zero, and yet there was much 
of interest occurring during that winter. The Indians were frequent 
visitors, bringing their corn and game in exchange for the work of 
the blacksmith. Arrow points, made from iron hoops and battle axes 
from a cast-off sheet-iron stove, were of particular value to them. 
While the Indians were jealous of the reputation of their wives and 
daughters, and resented any advances made by their brother Indians, 
they were not averse to attentions from their white visitors, and were 
solicitious to a degree for York, who was preferred to any of the 
party. 

The soldiers visited the lodges, sometimes dancing for the amuse- 
ment of the Indians. York generally accompanied them and was the 
star attraction at all times, entertaining them with his stories. He 
assured them that he was a wild man until caught and tamed by 
Captain Clark, and told them other stories of like character. 

The Indians made it a rule to offer food to the white men on 
their first entrance to their homes, indeed, there was nothing too good 



52 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

to place before them and urge upon them, and the union of the whites 
with the natives, may account for the light hair and blue eyes found 
among the Mandans. 

The women were noted for their industry and for their obedience 
to their husbands' commands. When their husbands desired to make 
a present to the little garrison of meat or corn, they brought it "on 
the backs of their squaws," whose services they vrere ready to lend 
for any other purpose for a slight consideration, or as an act of 
friendship. 

Many little incidents occurred during the winter to endear the 
whites to the Indians of these villages, but nothing more than the fact 
that when the Sioux made a raid and killed some of their hunters, 
Captain Clark turned out nearly his entire force, armed and equipped, 
and offered to lead the Indians against the Sioux. 
The Beautiful Northern Lights. 
V The extreme cold did not interfere seriously with the Indian 

sports, and Captain Lewis speaks of the beautiful northern lights, 
still characteristic of North Dakota. He writes: 

"Along the northern sky was a large space occupied by a pale 
but brilliant color, which, rising from the horizon, extended itself to 
nearly 20 degrees above it. After glistening for some time, its colors 
would be overcast and almost obscured, but again would burst out 
with renewed beauty. The uniform color was pale light, but its shapes 
were various and fantastic. At times the sky was lined with light 
colored streaks, rising perpendicularly from the horizon and grad- 
ually expanding into a body of light in which we could trace the 
floating columns, sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, and 
shaping into infinite forms the space in which they moved." 

Much of the winter was spent in gaining information from the 
Indians in relation to the country, and as to the number, habits, cus- 
toms and traditions of the several tribes. 

Rene Jeseaume had resided at the villages about fifteen years. 
He was entirely familiar with the language and habits of the Indians, 
and was accordingly employed as a Mandan interpreter, and immediate- 
ly took up his residence at the camp of the explorers. In the course 
of the winter Touissant Charbonneau was employed as a Hidatsa in- 
terpreter, and he and his good wife Sacajawea, the "Bird-Woman," 
who became the Shoshone interpreter after reaching the plains of 
Montana, also took up their residence at the fort. Joseph Gravelines 
was the Arikara interpreter, and John B. LePage, who was also em- 
ployed at the Mandan villages, the Cheyenne interpreter. 

Visiting Traders. 

Hugh McCracken, an independent trader, associated usually with 
North-West Company, was at the Mandan villages at the time of 
the arrival of Lewis and Clark, for the purpose of trading for buffalo 
robes and horses. The explorers took advantage of his presence to 
send special copies of their passports to Mr. Charles Chaboillez and 
asked the friendly offices of the North-West Company on their trip 
to the Pacific coast. In due time they received a reply, with thfe 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 53 

assurance that the North-West Company would afford them every 
assistance within their power. 

They were, also, visited during the winter by Charles McKenzie 
and Francois A. Larocque of the North-West Company, and later, by 
Hugh Heney, of the Hudson's Bay Company. Some of these parties 
visited Fort Mandan several times during the winter, and were 
allowed to trade at the villages without any interference. 

When the river was breaking up in the spring, the Indians fired 
the prairie, and drove the buffalo on to the ice and killed many of 
them on cakes of ice and towed them ashore. A large number were 
drowned, and many of these were taken by the Indians and used for 
meat. 

During the winter a large number of specimens were gathered 
or prepared by the party, and shipped to President Jefferson by the 
barge which left the villages the same day that Lewis and Clark left 
for the Pacific coast. 

The river broke up on the 25th of March, 1805, and April 1st, the 
boats were again placed in the water. Captain Lewis notes that the 
first rain since October 15th, fell on that day. They had spent a 
winter of bright sunshine, and the sun shines as brightly now as it 
did one hundred years ago. 

One day they were out on the river bottoms, in February, and 
killed 3000 pounds of game, among the lot 36 deer. Deer are still 
found on the river bottoms. The buffalo are gone, but myriads of 
ducks and geese still come and go. 

At the time of their departure for the Pacific coast, Corporal 
Richard Warfington, whose term' had expired, but who was held in 
the service for the purpose, left in the barge for St. Louis, with 
Joseph Gravelines, pilot, and six soldiers. They carried the specimens 
intended for the president, and were accompanied by an Arikara chief, 
who went to Washington in charge of Mr. Gravelines. The chief 
died in Washington, but Gravelines returned to the tribe in 1806, with 
the presents received by the chief, and a message from the president 
to the tribe. 

On the 7th of April, 1805, the party then consisting of thirty-two 
persons, pulled out of Fort Mandan for the Pacific coast via the head- 
waters of the Missouri. The names of the party were as follows: 
Roster of the Company. 

Commissioned Officers: Captains, William Clark, Meriwether 
Lewis; Non-Commissioned Officers: Sergeants, Patrick Gass, John 
Ordway, Nathaniel B. Prior and Corporal Richard Warfington, detailed 
for Washington; Privates, William Bratton, John Colter, John Collins, 
Peter Cruzette, Joseph Fields, Reuben Fields, Robert Frazier, George 
Gibbon, Silas Goodrich, Hugh Hull, Thomas P. Howard, Francis La- 
biche, Baptiste Lepage, Hugh McNeill, John Potts, George Shannon, 
John Shields, John B. Thompson, William Werner, Joseph White- 
house, Alexander Willard, Richard Windsor, Peter Wiser, York. 

The interpreters were George Drewyer and Touissant Charbon- 
neau, a French-Canadian voyageur, the latter accompanied by his 
w^ife Sacajawea, and a child born February 11, 1805, in the camp of 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

the explorers at the Mandan villages. Drewyer was a half-blood In- 
dian, and was the hunter of the expedition. He was afterward 
associated with Manuel Lisa in the fur trade as George Drouillard. 
They used six canoes and two pirougues (a boat made out of a long 
soft wood log) for their trip above the Mandan villages. One of the 
canoes was sunk the next day. 

The Return. 
The expedition returned from the Pacific coast to the Mandan 
villages, September 17, 1806. Fort Mandan had been destroyed by 
an accidental fire, but they were most cordially received by the In- 
dians. They gave Le Borgne full recognition on his reporting that 
he had not received the presents sent him by Cherry on the Bush, 
and presented him with a new lot befitting his station. They, also, 
gave him the swivel gun which had been used to salute or "talk," 
as they called it, to all the tribes with whom they had dealings on 
their trip. This gift was received by Le Borgne with great satis- 
faction, and carried to his headquarters with much ceremony. 

Independent British traders established a post at the mouth of the 
James River in 1804, after the expedition had passed that point and 
when Lewis and Clark returned in 1806, it was in charge of James 
Aird, representing Robert Dickson, then operating on the headwaters 
of the Mississippi and on the Minnesota Rivers. 

Hastening to St. Louis the explorers gave by their arrival the 
first information relative to them which had been received in the 
states since they left the Mandan villages in April, 1805. 

Charbonneau not wishing to return to the states, remained at 
the Indian villages. Rene Jessaume was employed as an interpreter, 
and accompanied the Mandan Chief Shahaka to Washington with 
Captains Lewis and Clark. 

It was the middle of February, 1807, before they reached the 
national capital and on March 3, 1807, Captain Lewis was appointed 
governor of Louisiana Territory. He died October 11, 1809, at the 
age of 34 years, while in that position. His death was attributed to 
suicide, but there is reason to believe that he was murdered and 
robbed at the inn where he was stopping on his way to Washington 
in connection with the adjustment of his accounts. The owner of the 
inn where he died was tried for his murder but the evidence was 
not sufficient to convict. The body of Governor Lewis, when found, 
had but 25 cents in money on it, and the inn keeper after his acquittal, 
displayed considerable money which he had suddenly acquired. It 
is not probable that Governor Lewis would have taken an official 
trip without money for the payment of his bills. His body was 
buried within the limits of the state of Tennessee near the spot where 
he was shot, and a monument was erected by the state, to commem- 
orate his life and work. 

March 12, 1807, Captain Clark was appointed by President Jeffer- 
son, brigadier-general of the militia of the Territory of Louisiana, 
and agent of the United States for Indian affairs in that department. 
He was reappointed by President James Madison, February 11, 
1811. Louisiana having been admitted as a state, April 30, 1812, and 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 



55 



the Territory of Missouri having been created, he was appointed gov- 
ernor of that territory by President Madison, July 1, 1813. He was 
reappointed by President James Monroe, January 21, 1817. On the 
admission of Missouri as a state, January 24, 1820, he became a can- 
didate for governor but was defeated by Alexander McNair. 

In May, 1822, President Monroe appointed him U. S. superin- 
tendent of Indian affairs, and in October, 1824, he was appointed 
surveyor general of the states of Illinois and Missouri. In 1825, 
he negotiated several treaties with the Indians, and had an advisory 
influence on the treaties made that year with his old friends, the 
Mandans, Gros Ventres (Hidatsas) and the Arikaras by General Henry 
Atkinson and Major Benjamin O'Fallon, U. S. Indian agent. General 
Clark died September 1, 1838, in his 69th year. 

Touissant Charbonneau and the Bird-Woman. 

"And the pleasant water-courses, 

Tou could trace them through the valley 

By the rushes in the spring-time 

By the alders in the summer. 

By the white fog- in the autumn, 

By the black line in the winter, 

And beside them dwelt the singer." 

— HENRY W. liONGPELLOW. 

Touissant Charbonneau's Indian wife sang merrily as a bird, 
and was known as the "Bird-Woman." By birth a Shoshone of Wyom- 
ing, and daughter of a chief, she was captured at 11 years of age 
from the Snake tribe of Shoshones by the Missouri River Indians, 
in one of their battles with her tribe, and had been sold to Char- 
bonneau, who lived with the Gros Ventres at the Mandan villages. 
She was reared by the Gros Ventres, wearing their costume, and it 
was they who named her "Tsa-ka-ka-wea-sh," which in the Indian 
language means, according to Professor Orrin Grant Libby, of the 
North Dakota Historical Society, Bird-woman. As written in Gros 
Ventres, "Tsa-ka-wa" signifies bird, "wea," woman; "sh," the. It was 
said she was uncommonly comely. 

Before being taken from her native tribe, she had travelled over 
much of the country, east and west of the Rocky Mountains, and 
thus was able to furnish valuable information relative thereto. Be- 
cause of her belief in, and devotion to her husband, she had con- 
fidence in the white men who were making their way to the land 
of her birth, and with much earnestness urged that her presence in 
the camp with her child, would be a means of protection to them, 
and her ability to talk with the mountain Indians a real help. 

So far as known, she was the first Indian convert to the Christian 
religion, west of the Missouri River, and the first pioneer mother to 
cross the Rocky Mountains and carry her babe into the Oregon 
country. While she crooned to her chubby brown baby during the 
long winter, a new light would come to her eyes at the thought of 
her far away home. 

On the way she made and mended the moccasins of the ex- 
plorers, taught them the mountain Indian methods of hunting bear, 
told them how to make carriages for transporting the boats around 
Great Falls, Montana, showed them how to find artichokes stored by 



56 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 

the gophers, and warned them against the waters they must not 
drink. She found eggs of the wild fowl and berries, and made 
ointment to cure sores and insect bites, and when her husband no 
longer knew the country, she became the guide. She was the only 
woman to accompany the expedition, and was guide, interpreter and 
protector. She protected the party when they were threatened by 
hostile Indians, secured for them food and horses, saved their journals 
and valuable papers at the risk of her life, when their boat cap- 
sized, and was the only one of the party who received no pecuniary 
reward for her services. 

Captain Clark thus describes her characteristics: 
"She was very observant. She had a good memory, remembering 
localities not seen since her childhood. In trouble she was full of 
resource, plucky and determined. With her helpless infant she rode 
with the men, guiding us unerringly through mountain fastnesses 
and lonely passes. Intelligent, cheerful, resourceful, tireless, faithful, 
she inspired us all." 

Thus it is always with the good woman, encouraging man to dare 
and to do. At his side at birth, in sickness and in death, helping 
and encouraging in hours of distress and peril — "first at the cross 
and last at the tomb." 

The influence of the Bird-Woman on her tribe gave a wonderful 
impetus to the uplifting of the Shoshones, from the day she greeted 
her brother, Camehawait, a chief at the head of the Snake Indians, 
who visited the camp of Lewis and Clark on the plains of Montana. 
Sacajawea was the true guide who remained with them to the end. 
She had recognized the Indians as they approached, as being of 
her tribe; among them an Indian woman who had been taken 
prisoner at the same battle in which she had been captured, but 
escaped. Her brother did not become known to her until she began 
to interpret. Then her joy knew no bounds. Though much agitated, 
the Bird-Woman concluded her work of interpreting the council be- 
tween her brother and Lewis and Clark, and then learned, that of her 
family only two brothers and her sister's child survived; the others 
having been killed in war or had died from other causes. She then 
and there adopted her sister's orphan child (Bazil) and took him with 
her to the Pacific coast. 

Returning with Lewis and Clark to the Mandan villages, she re- 
mained in that country until after the smallpox scourge of 1837. 
Subsequently she returned to her own tribe, then located in the 
Wind River country, and there lived until her death, the night of 
April 8-9, 1884, at the Shoshone Mission, Wind River, Wyoming, in 
the home of her adopted son, Bazil. She was then upwards of 
TOO years old, blind and deaf. The obsequies were conducted by 
the Rev. John Roberts, D. D., who had known her many jears, and 
who kindly furnished for this history the facts here stated in 
relation to her death. They are corroborated by A. I). Lane of 
Lander, Wyoming, who was at her house a few hours after her demise, 
also by Harry Brownson, an old-time resident of Bismarck, after- 
ward an employe of the traders' store at Shoshone agency, and others 




Statue of Sacajawea, Bismarck, N. D. 



Virginia Grant, 
Grand-daughter of Sacajawea 
Taken by A. P. Porter of Lander Wyo. for the 
Eai'ly History of North Dakota 




Sioux Women Dancing— Fashions of 1912 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 57 

personally known to the author, who knew her, and that her name, 
as known to the Shoshones, was "Sacajawea," meaning "to launch or 
push off the boat." 

Her husband, Touissant Charbonneau, was the interperter at the 
time of the treaty of General Henry Atkinson with the Mandans and 
Gros Ventres at the Mandan villages on the Missouri, in 1825. He 
spent the winter with Maximilian at Fort Clark, 1833-1834, was with 
him at the battle of Fort McKenzie, and, in 1838, was met by Charles 
Larpenteur when he went down the river to go east on a visit. 
Several of the Bird-Woman's descendants are now living on the 
Shoshone reservation, and a photograph of her great granddaughter 
in Indian costume, taken specially for it, forms one of the illustrations 
of this history. 

Her son, Baptiste, the baby, born in North Dakota, who was 
carried by his mother across the continent and return, was educated 
by General William Clark at St. Louis where young Baptiste Char- 
bonneau was located as late as 1820. He was an interpreter and 
guide with Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville in 1832-35, is men- 
tioned in the journals of Lieutenant John Charles Fremont at Fort 
Bridger, in 1842, and that year was with Sir William Drummond 
Stewart on a buffalo hunt in Wyoming. 

Her adopted son, known as "old Bazil,, was prominent in tribal 
affairs on the Shoshone reservation. 

Chief Washakie of Wyoming, who recently "passed to the other 
shore," at the age of about 100 years, knew Sacajawea, and held 
her in tender esteem. 

There is a monument to her memory near Fort Washakie, at 
the Shoshone Mission, Wind River, Wyoming, now U. S. Indian 
cemetery, erected by the state of Wyoming. The accompanying illus- 
tration shows the monument which stands over her grave. 

Her statue in the park at Portland, Oregon, erected through the 
efforts of Mrs. Eva Emery Dye and others, at the time of the Port- 
land International Exposition, a fine production worthy of the object, 
to perpetuate her memory, is, also, in the name of "Sacajawea" the 
spelling adopted by the Wyoming State Historical Society. 

In February, 1906, a movement was inaugurated by Mrs. Beulah 
M. Amidon of Fargo, North Dakota, to raise funds for a monument 
to the Bird-Woman to be erected at the state capital. The bronze 
statue at Bismarck designed by Cruvelle, is of heroic size, twelve 
feet in height, representing an Indian woman wrapped in a blanket, 
with a pappoose strapped upon her back. 

The legislature of North Dakota assumed the expense of the 
granite pedestal, but the statue was paid for by a fund contributed 
by the Federation of Women's Clubs and the school children of the 
state. 

On the bronze tablet are the words: 

Sakakawea 

The Shoshone Indian Bird-Woman 

Who in 1805 guided the 

Lewis and Clark expedition 

from the 

Missouri River to the Yellowstone. 

Erected by the 

Federated Club women and school children of 

North Dakota. 

Presented to the state, October, 1910. 



58 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA, 

The artist sketched the figure and costume at the Indian reserva- 
tion at Elbow Woods, North Dakota, and won the approbation of 
Spotted Weasel and James Holding Eagle, who inspected and criticized 
it in its early stages. 

It stands on the east side of the capitol grounds on a large block 
of rough granite, facing the west, the baby looking over her right 
shoulder. One foot is in advance of the other as if she were walking. 
The dedication took place October 13, 1910, the ceremony of unveiling 
being performed by Miss Beulah Amidon of Fargo, North Dakota. 
The invocation was by Bishop Wehrie of the Bismarck diocese 
of the Roman-Catholic church, and was followed by an address by 
Miss Hattie M. Davis, superintendent of schools of Cass county, who 
originated the idea of having the members of the Women's Clubs and 
the children of the state raise the money to pay for the statue. 
The presentation speech was made by Mrs. N. C. Young, president 
of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, Judge Burleigh F. Spalding 
of the supreme court, accepting on behalf of the state. Frank L. 
McVey, president of the state university, made the principal address. 

It was fitting that this remarkable woman, distinguished alike 
for intelligence, bravery and capability (and her child) should be 
honored by the women and children of North Dakota, and it matters 
little whether the name meaning "Bird-Woman" in Gros Ventre or 
'The launch of the boat" in Shoshone is accepted; that she was one 
and the same there can be no doubt. 

The Missouri Fur Company. 

Although borne on the rolls of the regular army until February 
27, 1807, Captain Clark tendered his resignation immediately after 
his return from the Pacific coast, and became interested in the or- 
ganization of a company which was incorporated as the St. Louis 
Fur Company, and after many vicissitudes finally reorganized as the 
Missouri Fur Company, the members of the original organization 
being Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Choteau, Sr., Manuel Lisa, Auguste 
Choteau, Jr., Reuben Lewis, William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre 
Menard, William Morrison, Andrew Henry and Dennies Fitzhugh. 
William Clark, then known as General William Clark, was agent of 
the company at St, Louis. 

The Return of the iVIandan Chief. 

In 1807. with Pierre Choteau in command of a trading party 
numbering seventy-two men, an attempt was made to return the 
Mandan Chief Shahaka, who had accompanied Lewis and Clark on 
their return to Washington, together with his wife and child, and the 
wife and child of his interpreter Rene Jessaume. Lewis and Clark 
had agreed on behalf of the United States to guarantee the safe re- 
turn of the party to the Mandan villages. 

The chief was under the escort of Ensign Nathaniel Prior, who 
had been a sergeant with the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

When they reached the Arikara villages, they were attacked by 
these Indians on account of the Mandan chief, but Choteau had an- 
ticipated treachery, and was prepared for it. After an hour's fight- 
ing he was able to withdraw with a loss of three killed and seven 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 



59 



wounded, one mortally. Three of Prior's party were wounded, in- 
cluding the interpreter of the chief. The Indians followed the party, 
and continued the attack from along shore as they proceeded down 
the river, until the Choteau party singled out a chief whom they 
recognized and shot him, when the Indians retired. 

The Indians had met with heavy loss, but to what extent was 
never known. Shahaka having returned in safety to St. Louis, awaited 
an escort, and the first contract made by the reorganized St. Louis 
Fur Company, thereafter to be known as the Missouri Fur Com- 
pany, was for the return of the Mandan chief to his tribe. In the 
contract the Missouri Fur Company agreed to engage one hundred 
and twenty-five men — of whom forty must be Americans and expert 
riflemen — for the purpose of escort. They were to receive $7,000 for 
the Indian's safe return. The party consisting of one hundred and 
fifty men, left St. Louis in the spring of 1809, Pierre Choteau in com- 
mand, arriving at the Mandan villages, September 24, 1809, the chief 
laden with presents. He had been entertained by President Jeffer- 
son, at his country seat of Monticello, and had been honored and 
feted from the time he reached St. Louis until his return, but his 
account of his experiences not being believed, he fell into disrepute, 
and was finally killed by the Sioux in one of the attacks by that 
tribe on the Mandan villages. 

(The several maps Illustrating the early explorations, the 
Louisiana Purchase, and the extension of boundaries of the United 
States, were prepared for the General Land Office, Washington, D. C, 
and are used by courtesy of that office.) 



CHAPTER VI. 



"WHEN WILD IN WOODS THE NOBLE SAVAGE RAN." 

The Expedition of Lieutenant Z. iVI. Pike. — Treaty With the Sioux. — 
On the Upper iVIississippi. — The Chippewas Smoke the Pipe of 
Wabasha. — Substituting the American for British Flags and 
IVIedals. — Game. — The Winter Cantonement. — Hospitality of the 
Traders. — Alexander Henry's Visit to the Mandan Villages. — Ideal 
Indian Homes. — Social Life Among the Indians. — Story of an In- 
dian Battle. — Proposed Treaty That Failed. — Manuel Lisa, the 
Trader. 

"I am as free as nature first made man, 
Ere the base laws of servitude began, 
When wild in woods the noble savage ran." 

— DRYDEN'S CONQUEST OF GRANADA. 

Conditions on the Frontier in 1805. 

In 1805, Spain still held dominion over the country west of the 
Missouri River, although she had already ceded her possessions to 
Prance, and from France they had passed to the United States, which 
had entered upon the exploration of the country. Captains Meri- 
wether Lewis and William Clark had spent a winter in what is now 
North Dakota, at Fort Mandan. They had traced the Missouri to 
its source, locating the Cannonball, Heart, Knife, White Earth and 
Yellowstone Rivers, and had given the world the first reliable in- 
formation relative to the plains of Dakota, then popularly supposed 
to be in the heart of the Great American desert. They reported a 
land abounding in game of all kinds, peopled by a brave and intelligent 
native population. 

Pembina was already on the maps of the period, together with 
the Pembina, Park, Turtle, Goose, Sheyenne and James Rivers, Devil's 
Lake and Lake Traverse. The Minnesota River was then known as 
St. Peter's and at its mouth was located Fort St. Anthony. There 
was no St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota, and in California no 
San Francisco. Chicago in Illinois, and St. Louis, then in Louisiana 
Territory, were frontier villages of little importance. There was no 
occupation of the Great West for development, save the lead mines 
near Dubuque, no wagon roads, aside from trails, and no means of 
communication, excepting by canoe and pony. There had been some 
early exploration by the French and by the Spanish, but until the 
expedition of Lewis and Clark, but little was known of this vast 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. Ql 

country, towards which the center of population of the United States 
is rapidly shifting. 

Pike's Expedition. 
The object of Pike's expedition was to select sites for military 
posts on the Mississippi River; to survey its waters to the source 
of that stream; to acquaint the traders with the change of ownership 
of the country and investigate their alleged unlawful conduct in the 
sale of goods without the payment of duties imposed, and to endeavor 
to bring about peace between the Sioux and the Chippewas and en- 
list their friendship on behalf of the United States. The roster of 
Lieutenant Pike's party was as follows: 

First Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, First Regiment U. S. Infantry, 
commanding; Sergeant Henry Kennerman; Corporals Samuel Brad- 
ley and William E. Meek; Privates John Boley, Peter Branden, John 
Brown, Jacob Carter, Thomas Daugherty, William Gordon, Solomon 
Huddleston, Jeremiah Jackson, Hugh Menaugh, Theodore Miller, 
John Montgomery, David Owings, Alexander Ray, Patrick Smith, John 
Sparks, Freegift Stoule and David Whilpley, in all one officer, one 
sergeant, two corporals and seventeen men. His interpreters were 
Joseph Renville and Pierre Rosseau. 

They left camp, near St. Louis, August 5, 1805; their means of 
transportation being one keel boat seventy feet long. On their arrival 
at Prairie du Chien September 4th, where they spent several days, 
they were saluted by the Indians with a volley of musketry, and it 
is claimed that some of the Indians who were under the influence of 
liquor, tried to see how close they could shoot without hitting the 
boat. Lieutenant Pike informed them of the object of his expedition, 
especially as to the matter of peace with the Chippewas. 

On September 23, 1805, he negotiated a treaty with the Sioux — ■ 
represented by Little Crow (grandfather of Little Crow, leader in the 
Minnesota massacre in 1862), and Way Ago Enogee — for a tract of 
land, nine miles square, at the mouth of the River St, Croix, also a 
tract of land extending from below the confluence of the Mississippi 
and St, Peter's Rivers up the Mississippi to include the Falls of St. 
Anthony, embracing nine miles on each side of the river, for the 
sum of $2,000, Congress confirmed this treaty April 16, 1808, but 
there is no record that it was proclaimed by the president. It is 
scarcely necessary to add that it embraced the land on which Fort 
Snelling and the cities of St, Paul and Minneapolis now stand. 

When Lieutenant Pike arrived at the headwaters of the 
Mississippi, he was treated with great cordiality and courtesy by the 
traders and their employees. Coming one night to a sugar camp, he 
was given his choice of beaver, swan, elk or deer for supper, and 
though sugar and flour were worth 50 cents per pound, and salt $1, 
there was no stint in the supply. 

Among the traders he met were Joseph Rolette and associates 
at Prairie du Chien, Murdock Cameron at Lake Pepin, Jean Baptists 
Faribault and Joseph Renville on the Minnesota, Robert Dickson on 
the Mississippi and Cuthbert Grant and Hugh McGillis in the Red 
Lake country. 



62 EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 

The traders were naturally pro-British and were controlled by 
British influences. Cuthbert Grant was still flying the British flag, 
but explained to Lieutenant Pike that it was owned by an Indian and 
he was not responsible for it. 

Flamouth, one of the Red Lake band, and Tahmahah, a Sioux, 
became great friends of Lieutenant Pike. Flatmouth rendered him 
great service, and Tahmahah adopted him as a brother, and entered 
the service of the United States as a dispatch bearer, and it was his 
proud boast that he was the only Sioux who was an American. 

Joseph Rolette guided the British forces at the time of their cap- 
ture of Prairie du Chien. Tahmahah was a prisoner of war there. 
When the British evacuated the fort they hoisted an American flag 
and fired the fort. Tahmahah, at the risk of his live saved the flag 
and was awarded a medal of honor. 

ZachaiT Taylor, then major. Twenty-sixth Infantry, U. S. A., 
afterwards president of the United States, was defeated by the In- 
dians in his efforts to punish them for the Prairie du Chien affair. 
He was subsequently stationed at Fort Snelling, Lieutenant Pike 
afterwards became a brigadier-general in the U. S. army, and at the 
battle of York, in upper Canada, April 27, 1813, he was killed 
by an explosion of the magazine at the fort after its surrender. 

On the Upper Mississippi. 

On the way up the Mississippi River, Lieutenant Pike found 
much game. There were many herds of deer and antelope and 
elk were so numerous that Chief Thomas killed forty in one day. 
They occasionally killed a bear, beaver were abundant and the buffalo 
plentiful later in the season. 

At the mouth of the Crow Wing River they found evidence of a 
recent and severe battle between the Sioux and Chippewas, in which 
the latter were victorious. 

October 16, 1805, Lieutenant Pike went into winter quarters, 
erecting a stockade at the mouth of Swan River, about four miles 
from the present village of Little Falls, Minnesota. The structure 
was thirty-six feet square, with blockhouses on the northwest and 
southeast corners. 

Here Lieutenant Pike left a sergeant and part of his command, 
and pushed on for the headwaters of the Mississippi with the re- 
mainder, extending his explorations as far as Cass Lake. January 
8, 1806, Lieutenant Pike visited the trading post of Cuthbert Grant 
at Sandy Lake, where there was a large stockade built in 1796, by 
the North-West Company. 

Lieutenant Pike found that the Indians of this region had great 
respect for the Americans. They did not consider them like either 
Frenchm.en or Englishmen, but as white Indians and understood that 
they were flerce in battle and ready at all times to defend their 
rights. The explorer came upon one party of Indians who were in- 
solent and threatening in their attitude until informed that they were 
Americans, when their manner immediately changed, and they ex- 
tended to them every possible courtesy. 

The prices at Grant's post for some of the staple articles were 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA, 53 

as follows: Wild oats, $1.50 per bushel; flour, 50 cents per pound; 
salt, $1 per pound; pork, 80 cents per pound; sugar, 50 cents per 
pound; tea, $4.00 per pound. 

Lieutenant Pike visited Hugh McGillis, who had a trading post 
at Leech Lake, and the next day Mr. Anderson at the trading house 
of Robert Dickson on the west side of the lake. 

Robert Dickson had a trading post near what is now St. Cloud, 
Minnesota, with branches at several points, including the post on 
the Missouri River. He cast his fortunes with the British during 
the war of 1812, but after the war, returned to Lake Traverse, North 
Dakota, where he was the agent for Lord Selkirk. He had a Sioux 
wife and four sons. 

February 12th, Lieutenant Pike went on to Cass Lake, and on 
the 18th, left Leech Lake for the stockade. On the 15th the Chip- 
pewas were in council with Lieutenant Pike on the subject of peace 
with the Sioux. They all smoked Wabasha's pipe and most of the 
chiefs gave up their British flags and medals and received the Amer- 
ican flag and medals in return. Wabasha was a leading representa- 
tive of the Sioux, and having agreed with Lieutenant Pike to make 
terms of peace with the Chippewas, sent his pipe by the hand of 
Lieutenant Pike to be used as his representative in the peace 
negotiations. The British traders had given the Indian chiefs medals 
and British flags and many of the chiefs were indebted to them for 
their office. Lieutenant Pike was instructed to take up these medals 
and flags wherever it was possible to do so, and substitute the Amer- 
ican flag and medals, believing that the effect upon the Indians would 
be salutary. 

Lieutenant Pike returned to the stockade March 5th, and on April 
7th left for St. Anthony Falls, where they arrived April 11th. He 
claimed that his boats were the first to pass up the Mississippi above 
the Falls of St. Anthony. 

Fort St. Anthony. 

The fort built at the mouth of the Minnesota River was at first 
called Fort St. Anthony, but in 1824, when Colonel Winfield Scott 
visited the post he suggested that St. Anthony, the name of a saint 
of the Prince of Peace, was not a good name for the fort; that the 
name was foreign to all of our associations, besides being geographical- 
ly incorrect. The name was accordingly changed to Fort Snelling 
and the fort became the nucleus around which the first settlements 
were made in the great Northwest, and from which they were ex- 
tended to the Dakotas and still westward. 

The Mandans. 
The Mandans are first mentioned in history by Sieur de la Veren- 
drye, who visited them in 1738. In 1750 they were living in nine 
villages, near the mouth of the Heart River. Two of these on the 
east side of the river, almost exterminated by disease and by war 
v/ith the Sioux, consolidated, and moved up to near the mouth of 
Knife River, where they were later joined by the other villages. 
Here they were found by Lewis and Clark. They were then esti- 
mated at 1250, and in 1837 their number was placed at 1600. In that 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

year they were stricken with smallpox, but 30 lodges, or about 125 
people, only remaining, and forsaking their villages after the scourge, 
they finally settled down at Fort Berthold in 1845. Their number 
in 1905 was 249. 

A Visit to the IVIandan Villages. 

July 7, 1806, Alexander Henry left Pembina for the Mandan 
Villages, accompanied by Joseph Ducharme and Touissant Vaudry, 
interpreter. The roads were heavy from recent rains and the horses 
often sunk to above their knees in mud and water. At night the 
mosquitoes were intolerable, the horses breaking away from their 
fetters on several occasions. July 11th they reached old Fort de 
Tremble, on the Assiniboine River, where in 1781, the Crees and 
Assiniboines and other Indians of that region, undertook to inaugurate 
a massacre of the whites then in the Indian country. Three men 
wore killed at the fort. The Indian loss was fifteen killed, and fifteen 
more died of wounds. The fort was then abandoned. July 11th, 
Henry reached a North-West trading post on the Mouse River (at 
Brandon). The Hudson's Bay and X. Y. Companies also had trading 
posts there at that time. F. A. Larocque was in charge of the 
North-West Company post. Charles Chaboillez, Jr., Allen McDonald 
and Hugh McCracken were also there, and they accompanied Mr. 
Henry to the Mandan Villages. 

After crossing the Mouse River, they kept a lookout for the Sioux. 
Mr. Henry writes: "We must be on our guard against the Sioux, 
the natural enemies of all tribes in these parts. They perpetually 
wander about in search of straggling Mandans or Big Bellies 
(Hidatsas) and sometimes cross the River la Souris in hope of 
falling in with Assiniboines and Crees, who frequently hunt along 
this river." 

July 19th they reached the Mandan Villages. The women were 
hoeing corn some distance from their village with well armed In- 
dians on the lookout for fear of the Sioux. 

Mr. Henry speaks of the large quantity of corn, beans, squashes, 
tobacco and sunflowers raised by these Indians, and of their manner 
of caching (secreting) their produce where it would not be likely 
to be disturbed by their enemies in case of an attack. 

Mr. Henry's party met Jean Baptiste La France with a small 
stock of goods, which he brought from the Brandon House for the 
purpose of trade at the Mandan Villages. As soon as Black Cat, 
their Indian host, learned who Mr. Henry was, he produced the flag 
given him> by Lewis and Clark, October 29, 1804, and kept that flying 
as long as they remained. 

Mr. Henry relates that he saw the remains of an excellent large 
corn mill which Lewis and Clark had given the Indians. They had 
broken it and used the iron to barb their arrows; the largest piece, 
which they could not work into any weapon, was used to break 
marrow bones of the animals killed in hunting. 

Henry's party crossed the Missouri in boats, made of willows and 
buffalo skins, called bull boats. 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 55 

Six Arikaras came into the village while Mr. Henry was there 
to treat for peace. Some of their people had accompanied a Sioux 
war party the fall before and killed five Mandans. The Mandans 
had made a return visit, killing two Arikaras and had sent them word 
that they intended to exterminate the whole tribe. These emissaries 
had accordingly come up to make peace. The Hidatsa were called 
into council, about thirty arriving on horse back at full speed. The 
Arikaras were directed to return at once to their village and tell their 
chief, Red Tail, that if he really desired peace he must come in person 
and then they would settle matters; and if he did not come they 
would find himi as soon as their com was gathered, and show him 
what the Hidatsa and Mandans could do when exasperated by Arikara 
treachery. 

About 100 Mandans came in with their horses loaded with meat 
from a day's hunt for buffalo. It was the custom of the Mandans 
to hunt in large bodies and to completely surround one herd and 
kill all of the animals so as not to alarm the other herds. 

When the hunting party returned they would divide with the 
neighbors, where there was no one to hunt for them, before resting 
themselves, and sometimes all was given away and others in turn 
divided with the generous givers. 

The Mandan Circular Huts. 

The circular hut where Henry lodged, measured 90 feet from the 
front door to the opposite side. The whole space was first dug out 
to a depth of about 11^ feet below the surface. In the center was a 
fire place, about five feet square, dug out about two feet below the 
surface. The lower part of the hut was constructed by erecting 
strong posts about six feet out of the ground, set at equal distances 
from each other. Upon these were laid logs as large as the post? 
to form the circle. On the outside were placed pieces of split wood, 
seven feet long, in a slanting position, one end resting on the ground 
and the other leaning against the cross logs. Upon these beams rested 
rafters the thickness of a man's leg, 12 to 15 feet long, slanting 
enough to shed water, and laid so close that they touched each other. 
Pour large posts in the center of the lodge supported four square 
beams on which the upper end of the rafters were laid. At the top 
there was an opening about four feet square which served for chimney 
and window. There was no other opening to admit light, and when 
it rained even this opening was closed. The whole roof was well 
thatched with willows, laid on to a thickness of six inches or more, 
fastened together in a very compact manner and well secured to the 
rafters. Over the whole was spread about a foot of earth. Around 
the wall to the height of three feet or more, earth was laid to the 
thickness of about three feet, for security in case of attack and for 
warmth in winter. 

The door was five feet broad and six high, made of raw buffalo 
hides, stretched on a frame and suspended from one of the beams 
which formed the circle. Every night the door was barricaded with 
a long piece of timber supported by two stout posts on the inside of 



56 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

the hut, one on each side of the door. A covered porch, 7 feet wide 
and 10 feet long, extended from the door. 

At the left of the entrance was a triangular apartment, fronting 
the fire, constructed of square timbers, 12 feet high, calked tight to 
keep out the draft from the door. On the right of the door was an 
open space to hold fire wood in winter. Between the partitions and 
the fire was about five feet, occupied by the master of the hut 
during the day, seated on a mat of willows, 10 feet long and four 
feet broad, raised from the floor and covered with skins, forming a 
sofa or couch. Here he sat all day and sometimes through the night, 
smoking and talking with friends. At the left of this apartment were 
the beds, at the other end of the hut was the "medicine" stage, con- 
taining everything the Indian valued most. Here or on the wall near, 
he kept his arms and ammunition. Next to this was the mortar and 
pestle for grinding grain. The remainder of the space was vacant. 
This was a typical Mandan hut, seldom occupied by more than one 
family. 

July 21st. In visiting the upper village they passed extensive 
fields of corn, beans, squashes and sunfiowers; the women and chil- 
dren were employed in hoeing and clearing their plantations. Up 
the road there were natives passing and repassing, afoot or on horse- 
back, the whole view presenting the appearance of a country in- 
habited by civilized people. At the fourth village the inhabitants 
followed them in crowds and made fun of them. Here they found 
Charles McKenzie, whom Lewis and Clark met at the Mandan 
Village, and James Caldwell, who had a temporary trading post there 
in the interest of the North-West Company. Le Borgne was the chief 
of this village. He was absent at the Cheyenne villages in connection 
with a proposed treaty of peace, and Henry and party accompanied 
the representatives of the Mandan village tribes to the place of 
meeting — a point west of Sugar Loaf Butte, southwest of Bismarck, 
on the west side of the Missouri. The meeting would have resulted 
in war had not the women and children accompanied the warriors 
from the Mandan Villages. As a peace treaty it was a failure. 

In preparing for the trip to the treaty grounds, which was to be 
somewhat in the nature of a fair, where every one showed his best 
products and his best clothes, Henry states he was surprised to see 
what a store of treasures the people of the Mandan Villages had on 
hand; he was confident they had provisions enough cached to last 
them at least twelve months. 

One of the pastimes of the Mandans was running long foot races 
in order to be prepared to take care of themselves if dismounted in 
battle. The race was at least six miles. They made it entirely 
naked and, on their return, covered with perspiration and dust, they 
would plunge into the Missouri. They also indulged in horse racing, 
during which they would carry on their warlike maneuvres on horse- 
back, feigning their different attacks upon the enemy, giving their 
strokes of the battle axe and thrusts of the spear. 

Mr. Henry speaks of the custom of the Indians to bathe in the 
river morning and evening, without regard to sex, their neighbors 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. g? 

or visiting strangers, and other customs no longer practiced among 
the tribes since the advent of religious instruction. 
An Old Battlefield. 

Henry visited the battle ground where about 1790, some 600 
lodges of the Sioux attacked and attempted to subdue the Hidatsas. 
They had made peace with the Souliers and Mandans and, therefore, 
pitched their tents between the Hidatsas and Knife River, thinking 
they would be able to cut off their water supply. Here they remained 
fifteen days, keeping guard to prevent them, but the Hidatsas, mount- 
ing their best horses, would reach the Missouri in spite of the Sioux 
(though several were killed), and thus secured an abundance of 
water. The Sioux compelled the Mandans to supply them with food, 
during the seige which was raised after several skirmishes, leaving 
300 dead on the field of battle. 

Another account states that the Yankton and Tetons were fiercely 
engaged with the Hidatsa and the battle was first going in favor of 
one and then the other, when reinforcements of Hidatsa arrived, 
accompanied by a large party of Crows. Observing with what 
fury the battle was raging at the front, they determined to surround 
the enemy by turning to the left, without being seen, as the country 
permitted this movement and they rode up a deep valley so far 
away as not to be in sight of the enemy. Keeping on the south 
side of these rising grounds, they went full speed into the valley 
which led down to the rear of the enemy. There they fell In with 
a great number of women, who had accompanied their husbands 
in full expectation of destroying and plundering the Mandan Villages. 
Many of these were killed and others taken prisoners. The party 
then appeared on rising ground in the rear of the Sioux and at- 
tacked with fury, dealing death and destruction on every hand. The 
Sioux, overpowered by numbers and exhausted by fatigue, were 
obliged to give way, but their retreat was cut off and they were 
so hard pressed that they were obliged to throw themselves Into 
the Missouri and attempt to swim across. Many more were killed in 
the river and but few survived to return to their country. The 
villages were surrounded by a stockade, mainly built of driftwood, at 
the time of Henry's visit. 

July 28th, Henry left the Mandan Villages, accompanied by Mr. 
Charles McKenzie and James Caldwell. The party consisted of 10 
men with 25 horses. July 30th, they found the plains in many places 
covered with water. August 3rd, they passed the Dog Den, and the 
next day eight of their horses broke their fetters, being frightened 
by a herd of buffalo. The buffalo were so numerous that they had to 
build a barricade around the camp to prevent being run over. It was 
with the greatest difficulty that they were able to cross the Mouse 
River, the banks where they reached it being low and miry and the 
river overflowed. At the head of the Turtle Mountains they found 
several recent camps of the Assiniboines. The Mouse River region 
was said to be infested with horse thieves at this time, and that 
.probably accounts for the fact that the lost horses, although hobbled, 
were not recovered. 



68 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

The trip was for the purpose of purchasing horses and was a 
failure, and resulted in the North-West Company withdrawing from 
the Mandan trade. 

The Arikaras. 

In 1770, French traders established relations with the Arikaras 
(sometimes mentioned as Rees, Ricarees or Aricarees) then occupy- 
ing their villages below the Cheyenne River, in what is now South 
Dakota. There were then ten powerful villages, but they were re- 
duced by war and disease to three, when found by Lewis and Clark. 
Their number was then estimated at 600 warriors, or about 2,100 
people. In 1888 they were reduced to 500, and the census of 1905 
placed their number at 380. 

The Hidatsa. 

The Hidatsa or Gros Ventres, of the Missouri, or Mineatarees, as 
they were called by Lewis and Clark, were first known to the whites 
when living in the vicinity of Knife River, in North Dakota. They 
occupied three villages near the Knife River, and when visited by 
Lewis and Clark, numbered 600 warriors, or about 2100 people. They 
learned agriculture of the Mandans, and when the trading post was 
established at old Fort Berthold, they moved up to that point. Re- 
duced by war and disease, the population in 1905 was only 471. 

Since the removal of these allied tribes to Fort Berthold, they 
have been known as the Berthold Indians. 

The census of 1912 shows a slight increase in the number of 
these Indians among whom are many noble specimens of humanity, 
who have a commendable pride in their ancestry common to all 
humanity. 

Ideal Indian Homes. 

When first visited by the whites, these Indians were living In 
ideal Indian homes. Their circular earth-covered huts were com- 
fortable in summer and sheltered the old and infirm in winter. Of 
food and the means for clothing there was an abundance. They 
were strong and fleet, and as the sun "arose from his bed in the 
dark" — to adopt an Indian figure of speech — it gave warmth and glad- 
ness, and when it "dropped below the light," the Indians slept, with 
none excepting the Sioux to make them afraid. Their women laughed 
in their hearts, and the light sparkled in the eyes of their children, 
like the sunshine dancing on the waterfall. The great spirit made 
their hearts good, and there was no one to tell them lies, until 
the white man went among them, carrying the blighting curse 
which has always followed, and always will follow the introduction 
of intoxicating liquor as a beverage among an ignorant people. 

The Mandans, Arikaras and Gros Ventres having spent the 
summer raising their crops of corn and vegetables, prepared secure 
places for caching their surplus, lest marauding Sioux might capture 
the camp during their absence. Only the old and infirm, and the 
young and helpless, were left at the summer home, the active force 
retiring to the Bad Lands for the winter. 

This winter exodus usually occurred in October. The Indians 
having credit with the traders were trusted for the supplies of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 69 

ammunition or other things necessary for their winter equipment, 
while some deposited their war bonnets of eagle feathers, or other 
valuables, as a pledge that they would pay when they returned 
from the chase. Many left valuables consisting of drums, rattles, 
lances, not required in the winter camp, in charge of the trader within 
his fort, feeling that they would be safe in case the ever-feared Sioux 
should make an attack upon their village during their absence. 

During the winter absence the summer camp was in terror lest 
the Sioux attack them, and great anxiety prevailed in the winter 
camp, lest their loved and helpless be attacked while defenseless. 

The independent traders usually made it a point to accompany 
the Indians to their winter camps, and gather the fruits of trade in 
the field, leaving the established traders to glean whatever might be 
left. 

During the hours of preparation, the women would patiently await 
their turn to sharpen knives and axes on the grindstone furnished 
by the trader for that purpose, while the young men dressed in their 
finest trappings, and painted in the height of Indian fashion, would 
ride their gaily caparisoned horses pell-mell about the camp, or en- 
gage in horse racing or games. The old men organized, and the 
soldiers took charge, and then the duly appointed haranguer an- 
nounced the orders governing every step in the preparation for the 
move, commencing with "pull down your tepees and get ready to move!" 
Their lodges were quickly pulled down by the women and the poles 
either tied in bundles for convenience or used for the travois. The 
women did all of the labor; they saddled the ponies, harnessed the 
horses and dogs to the travois, packed and loaded the goods, and, 
if necessary to cross the Missouri or other stream, paddled the men 
across in "bull" boats; their horses, fastened by long lariats, made 
from strips of buffalo skins, swimming in the rear. 

The march being taken up, the head of the family took the lead, 
followed by his horses, dogs, women and children, household effects, 
and camp equipage; the very young children and puppies being 
strapped on the travois. 

Soldiers were in absolute command, not even the chief daring 
to disobey. They directed the march, selected the stopping places, 
lingered at the rear to prevent loitering, and none could hunt with- 
out permission, or separate in any manner from the column. 

The winter camps were in the Bad Lands, formed by erosion, 
usually two or three hundred feet below the general level of the prairie. 
They were cut by numerous gullies and ravines, called breaks, giving 
small valleys, affording shelter, excellent winter grazing, and an 
abundance of timber for fuel and for erecting their temporary homes. 
There was also an abundance of game, consisting of deer, mountain 
sheep, bear, beaver, wolves, and as the winter advanced in severity, 
the buffalo came in for shelter. The grasses matured before frost, 
and when winter came they were in the condition of hay, and the 
animals quickly learned to paw away the snow, and feed as con- 
tentedly on the sun cured grasses thus exposed, as the stock in 



yQ EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

the eastern farmer's barnyard at the hay or straw stack, though on 
food of much better quality. 

It was these features which led Theodore Roosevelt in 1881 to 
become a citizen of North Dakota, establishing a cattle ranch at 
Chimney Butte, near Medora, in the very heart of the Bad Lands. 

To guard against storm, or in preparation for surrounding the 
buffalo, when there might be no time or opportunity for grazing, the 
women stripped bark from the young cottonwood trees, or the limbs 
of the last year's growth, which made good food for the Indian 
ponies. 

The place having been selected for the winter home — which was 
liable to change at any time — if conditions did not prove satisfactory — 
the skin lodges were erected, and then the women felled the timber 
and erected temporary cabins covered with poles, rushes, reeds or long 
grass and earth. The chimneys were built of sticks and clay. The 
buildings stood in a circle opening at the rear into an open space, 
covered in the same manner as the houses, used in common for the 
horses. 

Social Life Among the Indians. 
Notwithstanding the manifold duties of the women, they found time 
to attend the meetings of the several societies, or clubs, to which; 
they had become attached. Some of these societies organized much 
after the plan of the women's clubs of the present day, were known 
as the "White Cow Band," the white buffalo being a sacred animal; 
one was the "Goose Band," and still others were distinguished by 
names descriptive of some esteemed game, such as the "Black Tailed 
Deer," etc. Indians having several wives, each belonging to different 
societies, found it rather strenuous sometimes, as it was customary 
for each to entertain with feasting and dancing in turn. Some of 
their defenseless husbands made that an excuse for gambling, but 
when their losses of the necessaries of life became unbearable, their 
wives seldom failed to break up the game, and teach their husbands 
a much needed lesson. 

The men spent most of their time hunting, watching the stock, 
visiting, gambling and telling stories, until the buffalo made their 
appearance, when all was hurry and bustle. 

Thus the seasons would pass, several "surrounds" of buffalo 
happening each winter, and in the spring they would return to their 
permanent camp, where the women would prepare the ground and 
plant and harvest the crop; the men, as before, devoting their at- 
tention to visiting, gambling, hunting and war. 

IVIanuel Lisa. 
In 1807, Manuel Lisa, the first and most noted Upper Missouri 
River Indian trader, passed through the Arikara Villages, where he 
had a trading post, visiting them, in detail, with entire safety, imme- 
diately preceding the attack of that year upon Pierre Choteau's party. 
The influence of Tecumseh, and his twin brother, Tenskwatawa, 
the Shawnee prophet— of whom mention is made elsewhere in this 
volume— extended to the plains of the Missouri. Manuel Lisa, in a 
letter to Governor William Clark, July 1, 1817, said of him: 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. yj 

"All Of the nations of this great river were much excited to join 
the universal confederacy then setting on foot, of which the prophet 
was the instrument, and the British traders the soul." 

British influence armed and controlled the Indians of the 
Mississippi River, and the great lakes in the war of 1812, but through 
Manuel Lisa the tribes of the Upper Missouri remained loyal to the 
United States. He had been engaged in trade with them under 
Spanish licenses, prior to the Louisiana Purchase and established the 
first trading post in North Dakota after such purchase, just north 
of the 46th parallel, on the west side of the Missouri River, known 
as Fort Manuel, and of all the traders he was the most energetic. 
To account for the jealousy of other traders, he wrote General Will- 
lam Clark: 

"I put into my operations great activity; I go to a great distance 
while some are considering whether they will start today or tomorrow. 
I impose upon myself great privations; ten months in a year I am 
buried in the forests at a vast distance from my own home. I appear 
as the benefactor and not the pillager of the Indians. I carried among 
them the seed of the large pompion, from which I have seen in their 
possession the fruit weighing 160 pounds; also, tho large bean, the 
potato, the turnip, and these vegetables now make a comfortable part 
of their subsistence. This year I have promised to carry the plow. 
Besides, my blacksmiths work incessantly for them, charging them 
nothing, I loan them traps, only demanding preference in their trade. 
My establishinents are the refuge of the weak, and the old men no 
longer able to follow the lodges, and by these means I have acquired 
the confidence and friendship of these nations, and the consequence 
is choice of their trade." 

Manuel Lisa died in 1820, president of the Missouri Fur Com- 
pany, having from 100 to 200 men in his employ. His control of the 
trade of the Upper Missouri up to the time of his death was almost 
absolute, and his strength was in the fact that he knew the dangers 
to be encountered, and was prepared to meet them, while doing 
exact justice to the Indians. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAFT IN THE INDIAN TRADE. 

Eternal Vigilance the Price of Liberty.— The Country Overrun by In- 
dian Traders. — The United States As a Factor. — Organization of 
the American Fur Company. — The Lords of the Lake and Forest. — 
Fort William. — The Selkirk Purchase and Colony. — The Seven 
Oaks Massacre. — Selkirk Visits the Red River Colony. — Churches 
and Schools Established. 

"It is the common fate of the indolent, to see their rights become 
a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty 
to man is eternal vigilance; which condition, if he break, servitude 
is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of liis 
guilt." — John Philpot Curran, Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. 

Graft in the Indian Trade. 

The use of public office for the purpose of gain to the individual 
is now called "graft," and those who prey upon and mislead the peo- 
ple for their own personal advantage, are called "grafters," but it is 
no new thing in the world. In 1804, Captain Lewis commented upon 
this system then in vogue in Louisiana, under Spanish rule. The 
governor had assumed to himself the exclusive right to dispose of 
trading privileges among the Indians, selling licenses for personal 
gain. They were offered to the highest bidder, varying in value 
according to the extent of the country they embraced, the Indian 
nations occupying that country, and the period for which they were 
granted. They yielded all the income to the authorities the trade 
would bear. The traders at this period supplied the Indians with 
arms, ammunition, intoxicating liquors, and, indeed, anything they 
wished to buy, charging them exhorbitant prices, and the governor 
profited by the excess. 

Other Lines of Graft. 

But graft did not end with Spanish rule, nor with the retirement 
of the British traders. The history of the fur trade, and the develop- 
ment of the west is full of instances, and it is well for the people 
to remember, even yet, that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 

Joseph Rolette, an early Pembina trader, was too successful in 
the estimation of his rivals, and too popular with the Indians to 
suit their purposes, and so they elected him to the Minnesota legis- 
lature, and by that means got him out of the way for a time at lea^t. 

General William H. Ashley, who was one of the most successful 
of the early traders, was disposed of by being sent to congress, and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 73 

it was charged that at the end of his term he was paid a large salary 
to stay away from the Indian country. 

When Indian treaties were made for the alleged benefit of the 
Indians and to promote the interests of trade, the "grafter" was on 
hand to claim his share from both the Indian and the traders. The 
Minnesota massacre was largely the result of his work. 

When the Indian traderships ceased to be attractive, attention 
was turned to the military traderships. It was freely charged at the 
time of the impeachment proceedings against U. S. Secretary of 
War William W. Belknap, that the Fort Buford, Fort Abraham Lincoln 
and Fort Rice traderships paid $1,000 per month each, for the influence 
that controlled the appointments. Lesser sums were paid by the 
smaller posts. It was also charged that the Indian traderships con- 
tributed to a fund that paid a salary of $5,000 per annum to the one 
whose influence secured the appointment of the trader. 

When the Indian lands were opened to settlement the "grafter" 
very frequently claimed, for his influence, 50 per cent of the contract 
price for surveys. When the mail routes were established, and the 
transportation routes opened he was still there, and when counties 
and cities were organized, he lingered near, and he is sometimes 
found about legislative halls. 

Country Overrun by Traders. 

Traders, both Spanish and American, were operating in 1805 In 
the country around St Louis. British traders had overrun Minne- 
sota and the Dakotas, and the Spanish authorities had equipped galleys 
to patrol the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, in order to protect the 
interests of licensed traders and prevent the occupation of the country 
by others. 

The Indians, themselves, had no objection to traders, for the 
opportunity to trade gave them the means to buy the essentials to 
Indian happiness. They were generally friendly to the British traders 
and unfriendly to the Spanish, and would frequently lie in wait to 
destroy the galleys, or to attack the Spanish traders making their 
way up the rivers. Occasionally they would be incited by one trader 
to make war upon another, and they were quick to recognize the ad- 
vantage in trade held by the British over those of the United States, 
by reason of the high duties the latter were compelled to pay on the 
leading articles the Indians desired to buy. 

There was little, if any, attention, paid to the international 
boundary, and goods were being shipped into the United States 
territory without the payment of duty by the British traders. Rival 
British traders occupied the whole of the Canadian boundary; the 
British flag was flying over their fortifled forts at almost every 
available point for trade, and when the hour of national distress 
came, they led the Indians as their allies in the war of 1812. 

Although the Hudson's Bay Company claimed the Red River 
Valley and had made an attempt to occupy it, the aggressive force 
was the North-West Company, which was occupying every available 
point for trade. 



74 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

The United States As An Indian Trader. 
Lieutenant Pike left ttie impression among the Indians and trad- 
ers that it was the intention of the government to not only inter- 
fere with and restrict the sale of intoxicating liquors, but to establish 
government factories at which goods should be sold to the Indians at 
cost, allowing them a reasonable price for fur in exchange for goods, 
and in accordance with this policy, an attempt to do this was made 
by the government. The treaty with the Osage in November, 1908, 
by Captain Meriwether Lewis, then governor of Louisiana, provided 
that the United States should establish permanently a well assorted 
store to be kept at Fort Clark, Missouri (also known as Fort Osage), 
for the purpose of bartering with the Indians on moderate terms for 
their furs and peltries, such store to be kept open at all seasons of the 
year. This article of the treaty was eliminated by amendment, in the 
treaty of 1822, the United States paying the Indians $2,329.40 to be 
relieved from that provision of the treaty. Similar agreements had 
been made for trading facilities with other Indian tribes, from which 
the government, also, secured release. 

It was believed that it was the true policy of the government, 
to draw the Indians within the plane of civilization, and that to fur- 
nish them goods at cost and pay them the full value for their peltries, 
would be an object lesson that would lead them in that direction. 

The factories established by the government were mainly east 
of the Mississippi River. There was only Fort Osage west of the 
Missouri. 

While undertaking to furnish the Indians with goods at cost, 
the government issued licenses to other traders desiring to enter into 
competition. The private trader advanced supplies, and whatever 
the Indian might require when he started on the hunt, generally 
accompanying him, and securing his furs as fast as taken. The gov- 
ernment stores could not give credit, nor could they sell intoxicating 
liquors to the Indian, but the private traders smuggled liquors into 
the country and satisfied their yearning for it. The government 
traders were required to sell American goods, but the American 
blankets and other goods were not then equal to those imported, 
and could not be sold to the Indians in competition with English goods. 
The private trader usually spoke the Indian language, was personally 
acquainted with the Indians and had an interest in securing trade 
and in the profits resulting therefrom, but the government trader 
was a salaried person, had nothing to gain by making sales and 
nothing to lose if he failed. The system was abandoned in 1822, 
largely through the persistent efforts of U. S. Senator Thomas H. 
Benton of Missouri, who led the assaults upon it in the interests of 
the American Fur Company, having its western headquarters at St. 
Louis. 

The American Fur Company. 

The American Fur Company was organized under a charter 
granted by the State of New York, approved April 6, 1808. John 
Jacob Astor was the company. Auxiliary companies were organized 
for special purposes and special places, and called by various names. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 75 

Astor retaining a controlling interest in each, and merging the busi- 
ness of each with that of the American Company, for which he 
sought the markets of the world. 

The Pacific Fur Company, organized June 10, 1810, was one of 
these special organizations. A part of the company was sent by sea 
to the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific coast, and other 
members went overland, leaving the Arikara villages on the Missouri 
River June 12, 1811, reaching Astoria the following January. In 
1816 congress passed an act, excluding foreigners from the fur trade 
in the territory of the United States, excepting in subordinate ca- 
pacities under American management. This was brought about, in 
part, by the activity of the traders during the war of 1812, on behalf 
of Great Britain, and due largely to the influence of Mr. Astor. This 
gave him the opportunity to take up the interests of the North-West 
Company in the United States, which he consolidated with the South- 
West Company, previously organized, and the Pacific Fur Company, 
and enabled him to recoup his previous losses on the Pacific coast. 

The American Fur Company was reorganized in 1817, and a 
western department established with headquarters at St. Louis. 
Ramsey Crooks became the general agent, assisted by Robert Stuart. 
Russell Farnham was the chief representative on the Mississippi, 
and to him is given the credit of being the first to carry the trade 
of the American Fur Company into the Missouri River region. Pierre 
Choteau, and his associates, became interested in the company in 1829. 

The Missouri Fur Company was reorganized in 1818, its member- 
ship then consisting of Manuel Lisa, Thomas Hemstead, Joshua Pilcher, 
Joseph Perkins, Andrew Wood, Moses Carson, John B, Immel and 
Robert Jones. 

Fort William. 

For many years Grand Portage was the headquarters of the fur 
trade on the Great Lakes, but under the treaty of amity and commerce 
of 1794, between the United States and Great Britain, known as the 
John Jay treaty, it was provided that all British forts within the 
territory of the United States should be evacuated within two years. 
Accordingly Grand Portage was abandoned, Fort William — so named 
for William McGillivrey, the Montreal manager of the North-West 
Company — was established, and headquarters were transferred to 
that post. 

Fort William overlooking the bay on the north side of Lake Su- 
perior was surrounded by a palisade and in its center stood the head- 
quarters building, with its walls hung with costly paintings, and 
beautifully decorated. There was a council chamber and parlor 
where the members of the company, known as partners, and their 
guests, were entertained. The dining-room, supplied with tables for 
the various employees as well as for the managers, the partners and 
their guests, was 60x30 feet in extent. There were private rooms for 
the partners at either end of the dining hall, which was flanked by 
sleeping rooms, and a large kitchen and other conveniences. There 
were, also, the general store, within the stockade, the canteen or liquor 
store, the warehouses and workshops, and the home of the resident 



76 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

partners and employees. Several hundred persons were usually 
camped in the vicinity of the fort, some seeking pleasure and others 
waiting for employment when the busy season should commence. 

The members of the company who spent the winters in the field, 
were called the "wintering partners." Others were at Fort William 
in order to receive and forward general goods and furs, and still others, 
at Montreal, managing the general interests of the company, buying 
and selling supplies and products. 

They practically controlled the trade of the lakes and forests, 
and the streams entering the lakes. 

Washington Irving wrote of the power of these autocrats: 

"The partners held a lordly sway over the wintry lakes and 
boundless forests of the Canadas, almost equal to the East Indian 
Company over the voluptuous climes and magnificent realms of the 
orient." 

And of its decadence: 

"The feudel state of Fort William is at an end; its council cham- 
bers no longer echo in the old world ditty; the lords of the lakes and 
forests have passed away." 

The annual meeting of the company was held at Fort William, 
and on these occasions, and on holidays, banquets were given to the 
visiting partners that were almost regal in character. The tables 
were supplied with every luxury from the east and the west — with 
game from the forests, the choicest of the finny tribes from the lakes 
and streams, and the most costly wines and liquors. As the morning 
hours approached and the festivities reached the carousal stage, re- 
straint was relaxed and the doors were thrown open, when the 
voyageurs, servants and attendants were permitted to look on and 
laugh, if not to participate in the merry pranks and songs of the 
wine-heated partners and their guests. 

The Voyageurs. 

The canoe, which was the only means of transportation between 
the East and the West, was made of birch bark, and carried from 
one and one-half tons to four tons freight, or an equivalent number 
of passengers, and swiftly sped over the lakes and streams, manned 
by voyageurs, merrily singing some favorite ditty, such as: 
"Row, brother, row; the streams run fast. 
The rapids are near and the daylight is past," 
and when the rapids were reached, they would as merrily carry boat 
and freight over the portage, around the rapids, or, from one stream 
to another, and pass on, singing: 

"As faintly tolls the evening chime, 
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time." 
Also for the evening the following was a favorite: 
"Sing nightingale, keep singing. 
Thou hast a heart so gay; 
Thou hast a heart so merry, 
While mine is sorrow's prey." 

Several hundred descendants of these people became residents of 
North Dakota. They had passed through all the experiences to be 
encountered in frontier life, beginning with the happy life of the 



EARLY HISTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 



77 



voyageur, participating in the dangers of war, and in the excitement 
of the chase, settling down, at last to the quiet life of the rancher 
and farmer. 

Peter Grant, who established the first trading post at the mouth 
of the Pembina, heretofore mentioned, was an interesting writer. 
Of the canoe service he said: 

"The North-West Company's canoes, manned with five men, carry 
about 3,000 pounds. They seldom draw more than eighteen inches 
of water, and go generally at the rate of six miles an hour in calm 
weather. When arriving at a portage, the bowman instantly jumps 
into the water, to prevent the canoe from touching the bottom, while 
the others tie their slings to the packs in the canoe and swing them 
on their backs to carry over the portage. The bowman and steerman 
carry the canoe, a duty from which the middlemen are exempt. The 
whole is conducted with astonishing expedition, a necessary con- 
sequence of the enthusiasm which always attends their long and 
perilous voyages. It is pleasant to see them, when the weather is 
calm and serene, paddling in their canoes, singing in chorus their 
simple, melodious strains and keeping exact time with their paddles, 
which effectually beguiles their labors. When they arrive at a rapid, 
the guide or foreman's business is to explore the waters previous to 
their running down with their canoes, and, according to the height 
of water, they either lighten the canoe by taking out part of the 
cargo and carry it overland, or run down the whole load. 
The Selkirk Colony. 

In 1801 Sir Alexander McKenzie published an account of his ex- 
plorations, which attracted the attention of Thomas Douglas, Earl 
of Selkirk, who conceived the idea of colonizing a considerable num- 
ber of the homeless people of his own land where a strong and loyal 
community might be built up. He endeavored to interest the Hudson's 
Bay Company in a colonization scheme, but failed to secure concessions 
from them; it being their policy to prevent settlement and to retard 
development, and hold the country for the Indian trade entirely. 
Thereupon he proceeded quietly to purchase, through his own re- 
sources and the assistance of his friends, a controlling interest in the 
stock of that company, and having accomplished this, on May 30, 1811, 
the company sold to him 110,000 square miles of the land, embracing 
all of the Red River within the British possessions, and the streams 
tributary thereto, with other lands. Selkirk was materially assisted 
in accomplishing his purpose by the accounts of the explorations of 
Lewis and Clark published in England and other foreign countries. 
The Selkirk Purchase. 

The country purchased by Selkirk, without other consideration 
than his agreement to colonize it, covered an area of upwards of 
seventy million acres, described, in detail, as follows: 

"Beginning at the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, at a point 
on 52° 50' north latitude, and thence running due west to Lake 
Winnipegoosis, otherwise called little Winnipeg; thence in a souther- 
ly direction through said lake, so as to strike its western shore in 
latitude 52°; thence due west to the place where parallel 52° inter- 



78 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA, 

sects the western branch of the Red River; thence due south from 
that point of intersection to the height of land which separates the 
waters running into Hudson Bay from those running into the Missouri 
and Mississippi Rivers; thence in an easterly direction along the 
height of land to the source of the River Winnipeg, meaning by 
such last named, the principal branch of the waters which unite in 
the Lake Saginalis; thence along the main stream of those waters 
and the middle of the several lakes through which they flow, to the 
mouth of the River Winnipeg, and thence in a northerly direction 
through the middle of Lake Winnipeg to the place of beginning, 
which territory shall be called Assiniboia." 

The grant embraced nearly all of what is now Manitoba, and a 
small portion of North Dakota. Having thus secured the land, Sel- 
kirk sought to interest in his colonization scheme the Scotch High- 
landers, who were at that time being evicted from the Sutherland 
and other estates in Scotland. The Sutherland estate embraced some 
seven hundred square miles of well populated territory. All tenants 
within a defined district were ordered to vacate within a given time, 
and when that time expired, if any remained, they were forcibly 
evicted, whether sick or well, and their homes given to the flames. 
It was partly to meet the needs of this class of people, to find 
"homes for the homeless," who formed the bulk of his colony, that 
Selkirk undertook the work of colonization. 

Under these conditions it was not difficult to obtain colonists, 
and that year he dispatched seventy persons to the Red River Valley, 
who arrived the year after, followed by fifteen or twenty more the 
next year, by ninety-three in 1814; by one hundred in 1815; about 
two hundred and seventy being Scotch Highlanders, of whom one 
hundred and thirty became permanent settlers. 

The first party was in command of Captain Miles Macdonnell, 
who had seen service in the British army, the colonists meeting 
with opposition and petty annoyances from the start by agents of 
the North-West Company, who were, also, opposed to the settlement 
of the country. Other parties leaving England for the colony were 
interrupted and annoyed by North-West Company influences; some of 
its designing members having purchased stock in the Hudson's Bay 
Company, hoping to defeat Selkirk's project. 

The colonists were not only distressed before they left for 
Rupert's Land, as the country came to be known, but there was sick- 
ness and trouble at sea, and when they arrived at York factory, 
Hudson Bay, September 24, 1811, they were landed without any pre- 
vious preparations to receive them, and even the sick were without 
shelter. Their trip to the Red River the next spring, through an un- 
settled country, though by canoe, was an arduous one. 

After they reached the Red River they were annoyed in every 
conceivable manner, by persons, dressed in Indian garb, threatening 
them and committing petty depredations upon their property, for the 
purpose of frightening them; outrages which it was intended should 
be attributed to the Indians. Finally one hundred and forty of the 
colonists were led away by agents of the North-West Company, who 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 79 

promised them land in Canada, a year's provisions, and other con- 
siderations, but the more sturdy ones refused to leave. June 25, 
1S15, these were attacked by the Bois Brule, as the half-bloods were 
called, one of their number killed, several wounded, and their homes 
burned. Those who survived were driven away, but were piloted to 
the Hudson's Bay Company factory, on Lake Winnipeg, by friendly 
Indians. 

The distrust natural to the Indians had gradually been displaced 
by a liking for the colonists, not only because they offered a market 
for meat the traders refused to buy, but for their sturdy integrity. 
Unlike the majority of their race, whose preconceived opinions, as 
will be noted further on, were not flattering to the whites in general, 
they had found white men who were not liars, and were not trying 
to harm or take advantage of them, and though they ridiculed their 
"tender feet," they stood ready to act in their defense, and all 
efforts to induce them to attack the colonists failed. 

On the arrival of the new settlers in June, 1815, the colonists 
who had been driven away, returned and rebuilt their cabins and 
harvested their crops. Because no preparations had been made to 
receive the colonists of that year, and on account of the scarcity 
of provisions, seventy-five of the strongest went to Pembina where 
there was a deserted trading post, which was fitted up for their com- 
fort, and a number of new cabins erected. The buffalo were, also, 
abundant near Pembina, and pemmican could be obtained for food 
from the Indians. 

The succeeding winter was a severe one, the mercury sometimes 
falling to 45 degrees below zero, with deep snows. Their supplies 
of food were very low, but with pemmican obtained from the Indians, 
fish — caught through holes in the ice — from the river, and an 
occasional dog, which they relished under the circumstances, they 
managed to subsist during the winter, and in the spring they gathered 
the seed balls of the wild rose and acorns, which, cooked with buffalo 
fat, afforded nutritious aliment. 

During the trouble with the settlers in the summer of 1815, 
Governor Miles Macdonnell had been arrested and carried away from 
the colony by Duncan Cameron, the North-West Company governor, 
acting as an alleged Canadian officer, and the artillery belonging to 
the Hudson's Bay Company post had been seized, on the ground that 
it had been used to break the peace, when used in defense of the 
colony. But among the new arrivals that year was Robert Semple, 
a former officer of the British army, who assumed the duties of 
governor of the colony. He spent a portion of the winter at Pembina, 
where the North-West Company had a trading post, known as the 
Pembina House. This he seized, and arrested the managers — who 
were afterwards released — and, also, in May, 1816, attacked and razed 
a post belonging to the company, known as Fort Gibraltar, which 
was in charge of Cameron, using the material to strengthen the de- 
fenses at Fort Douglas, the Hudson's Bay Company post, and to re- 
build the homes of the settlers. 

Fort Gibraltar was erected for the old X. Y. Company, the Mon- 
treal rival of the North-West Company, represented by John Wills, 



80 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

in 1797. The stockade was made of oak logs, split in two, fifteen feet 
high. There were eight buildings, viz., four, 64, 36, 28 and 32 feet 
in length, respectively, and a blacksmith shop, a stable, a kitchen 
and an ice house. Twenty men were engaged a year in its 
construction. 

Fort Douglas, the site of the settlement of the Selkirk Colony, 
was one mile below the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. 
Here was the residence of the governor. Selkirk gave it the name 
Kildonan, in 1817, in honor of the settlers who came from Kildonan 
parish in Scotland. 

In the spring of 1816, the settlers left their quarters at Pembina, 
known as Fort Daer, occupied winters by members of the colony 
until 1823, and planting their crops, looked for favorable returns and 
for peace, yet fearing the worst, for the retaliatory measures adopted 
by Governor Semple had made bloodshed almost certain. 
The Governor and Settlers Killed. 
On June 16, 1816, the settlers were again attacked by the Bois 
Brule, and the governor and twenty-one out of twenty-eight of his 
officers and men were shot and killed at Seven Oaks, whereupon Fort 
Douglas was surrendered to the representatives of the North-West 
Company. The attacking party was commanded by Cuthbert Grant, 
and the attack was planned by Duncan Cameron, the chief officer of 
the North-West Company, especially instructed to destroy the colony. 
Through many kindnesses done the colonists, and through being able 
to speak their languages, he had succeeded in planting the seeds of 
discord, and in leading away the major portion of the colony before 
the attack of the previous year. 

It may be doubted that murder was intended. The Montreal 
traders had been the first to explore and open the country to trade, 
followed by the Hudson's Bay Company at every important point. 
The Hudson's Bay Company's grant to Selkirk embraced much of a 
country which the North-West Company regarded their own by right 
of discovery or original French leases or grants, and by occupation. 
Selkirk had given them a limited time in which to leave the territory, 
and his agents had captured their Fort Gibraltar and razed it, taking 
absolute command of the river, interrupting their communication with 
their frontier posts and paralyzing their business; and he had also 
captured their post at Pembina. He failed to supply his colonists with 
provisions or means of cultivating the soil, but had not neglected to 
furnish them with arms and ammunition, and a battery of artillery, 
and Governor Macdonnell had thoroughly drilled them, exciting the 
belief that the colony was to be used as a military force to crush 
the North-West Company and utterly destroy their business. This 
Cameron was expected to prevent. 

At Sault Ste. Marie, on his way to this colony, Selkirk learned 
of the murder of Governor Semple and his party. His expedition 
consisted of about 250 men; among them 100 men of the DeMeuron 
and Watteville regiment, whom he had hired to go to the colony and 
defend It, if need be; 150 canoe men and other employees. He imme- 
diately proceeded to Fort William, the headquarters of the North-West 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 81 

Company, and, acting as a magistrate, arrested all of the principal 
men connected with the company, and sent them to Canada for trial, 
he wintered at Fort Williami, proceeding to his colony the next 
spring, and upon his arrival, in June restored order and confidence. He 
gave deeds for the lands on which his settlers had made improve- 
ments, made treaties with the Indians for the extinguishment of their 
title to the lands he claimed, made a treaty of peace with the Sioux, 
and, though a Protestant, he urged the Catholic authorities to establish 
a mission at Fort Douglas, and for this purpose gave twenty-five 
acres for the church, and a tract of land, five miles long by four 
miles wide, promising any additional aid he or his friends might be 
able to render. 

The Church and Schools Established. 

For one hundred and fifty years the Hudson's Bay Company had 
owned and occupied Rupert's Land. They had generally prospered, 
and their stock had paid large dividends, and yet, in all that land, 
there was neither church nor chapel, priests nor teacher — not a single 
school had been founded. But this condition was to prevail no longer. 

In February, 1816, selection was made by the Bishop of Quebec 
of the person to establish the mission requested by Selkirk, and for 
which his colonists had petitioned. July 16, 1818, Father Joseph 
Provencher and his companion. Father Joseph Severe Dumoulin, ar- 
rived at Fort Douglas, and established a mission which thereafter 
was known as St. Boniface. Soon after their arrival grasshoppers 
visited the Red River country, and completely destroyed the crops 
of the settlers, forcing the new colonists, who arrived that year, also 
to go to Pembina, where there was already a considerable settlement. 

Father Dumoulin went to Pembina the latter part of August, 
and September 8, 1818, celebrated mass at Pembina, the first Christian 
service within the limits of what is now North Dakota. 

He founded a school, which was placed in charge of William 
Edge, and when the Vicar General (Provencher) arrived in January, 
1819, there were sixty pupils in the school, and three hundred people 
in the parish, while at St. Boniface, the foundation of Winnipeg, there 
were about fifty. The first teachers in the school at St. Boniface were 
the two Misses Nolan, Pembina girls and daughters of the trader. 

Of the commercial advantages of Pembina, the Vicar General thus 
wrote to the Bishop: 

"That post is for the present very important. From there I, with 
all of the colony, receive all of my provisions. I shall continue to 
build there." 

He spoke of his chapel at St. Boniface, 80x35 feet, and his "shop" 
at Pembina, 24x18 feet, with a presbytery, 60x30 feet. He was dis- 
quieted by the information that Pembina was on the American side 
of the international boundary line, and admitted that his plan had 
been disarranged by the information, but he intended "to continue 
to build, for Father Dumoulin must spend the winter there." 

In 1819 and 1820, the grasshoppers again destroyed the crops, 
leaving the colonists entirely dependent upon Pembina for subsistence. 



82 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA. 

Provencher spent the winter of 1819-20 at Pembina. Almost every- 
one had left St. Boniface, for the winter. 

In 1820, Provencher was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Quebec 
with the title of Bishop of Juliopolis, and May 12, 1822, was con- 
secrated. He returned to St. Boniface in August, 1822, after an 
absence of two years from the colony, to find that the Hudson's Bay 
Company had insisted upon the withdrawal of the priests from Pem- 
bina, for the reason that it was on the American side. This was deter- 
mined by observations made by David Thompson for the North-West 
Company in 1798, and confirmed in August, 1823, by Major Stephen 
H. Long, the priests having withdrawn the previous January. 

Some of the settlers after the withdrawal of the priests, founded 
the parish of St. Francis Xavier, and others went to Fort Snelling, 
and various points in the United States, the colonists generally re- 
turning to St. Boniface, as they had been in the habit of doing, each 
spring. Father Dumoulin was heart-broken over the destruction of 
the interests he had built up at Pembina, and returned to Canada, 
where he died in 1853. 

Hudson's Bay Company and North-West Company Amalgamated. 

Regarding the amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay and North-West 
Companies, the following letter was written by Alexander Lean to 
to Peter Fidler, both members of the H. B. C, at London May 21st, 
1821: 

"I received your esteemed favour of the 14th August last from 
Norway House. I thank you much for the information it contained. 
I shall now, in return, give you such intelligence as will, I trust, not 
only be agreeable to you but to every individual in the service. 

"In the first place, all misunderstanding between the Hon'ble 
Company and the North-West Company is totally at an end. You are 
to know that the Hon'ble Company 'caused it to be announced in the 
Gazette and daily papers, that a General Board of Proprietors would 
be held at their house on Monday, the 26th March last. It was so 
held and many of the Hudson's Bay and North-West proprietors 
attended. Tendency of this meeting was to promulgate that a union 
between the two companies had taken place. I cannot enumerate 
the resolutions which unanimously passed on the occasion, let it 
suffice for me to acquaint you that it appears to have been a well- 
digested plan, which eventually will tend to the advantage of both 
companies. 

"Mr. Garry, a Gent, of the Honorable Committee, accompanied 
by Mr. Simon McGillivray, has embarked for New York, from thence 
to Montreal in order to proceed to the company settlements, the 
North-West stations and Red River. If you should see Mr. Garry you 
will find him a Gent'n in every respect, and deserving respectful 
attention. The whole concern will be apportioned into shares to 
which the North-West Agent will be entitled. 

"I was present at the general board (being a proprietor) and after 
the business was concluded a mutual congratulation passed between 



EARLY HlffTORY OP NORTH DAKOTA. 83 

the Governor, etc., and myself, and I sincerely wish every individual, 
a fellow laborer in the same vineyard in which I was till lately, joy 
on the happy event." 

Peter; Fidler was a surveyor and a very well-known officer in the 
service of the Hudson's Bay Company; John Wills, the Pembina man- 
ager of the North-West Company, is mentioned in the will of Mr. 
Fidler, dated August 16, 1821. 



END OF PART I. 



FEE IS 1913 



EARLY HISTORY OF 
NORTH DAKOTA 



COLONEL CLEMENT A. LOHNSBERRY 

Founder of the Bismarck Trilmno 

PART I 




From Painting by Edwin WillardDeming 



Ilhistri.tcd by EDWIN WILT.ARD DEMTNG 
Photographs by D. F. BARRY 



"THE BUFFALO REPUBLIC" 



DULUTH 

F. H. T^oiinsberry & C< 

1913 



RMv/'IS 



